Everyone's Blog Posts - 12.160Mhz

Wired: Iran Launches Airstrikes on Iraqi Villages

2009-05-05T04:59:32.430Z

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/iran-launches-airstrikes-on-iraqi-villages/

Iranian aircraft attacked three villages inside Iraq over the weekend. The airstrikes — Iran’s first on Iraqi soil since the U.S. invasion — could complicate the Obama administration’s efforts to normalize relations with Tehran.

“The bombardments appeared to have targeted the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), an Iranian Kurdish separatist group which has launched attacks on Iran from rear-supply bases in the mountains of northern Iraq,” AFP reports. Iran has attacked the Kurdish group before, with artillery. But this is the first time the Iranians followed up, with assaults from the air.

“The incident comes a week after reports of a clash between Iranian police officers and suspected PJAK fighters in the country’s western province of Kermanshah,” Al-Jazeera reports. “At least 10 policemen and 10 fighters were killed in the gun battle.”

Details on the airstrikes remain sketchy. Voice of America says the attacks were carried out by helicopters, which remained in Iranian airspace. Al-Arabiyah television, on the other hand, says it was “Iranian planes [that] raided those villages.”

It is a serious development because the Iraqi airspace is under the control of the US Air Force and under US protection. So the raids are either approved by the United States, as was the case when a US nod was previously given to the Turkish Army, or such operation was a surprise by the Iranians. According to eyewitnesses, the planes were flying at very low altitudes, which may indicate that they were trying to escape detection by radars. So these planes were able to attack many locations. Eyewitnesses and official Kurdish sources said that the raids were carried out by fighter jets and not helicopters.

In February, American fighter jets shot down an Iranian drone flying over Iraq. Such an incursion would’ve likely provoked an angry response from the previous administration. But the reaction to the drone incident was muted — perhaps in the interest of keeping the dialogue with Tehran going.

[Photo: Xiaforces.com]

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2009-05-05T00:49:54.330Z

AP- WASHINGTON D.C. - In a move certain to fuel the debate over Obama’s qualifications for the presidency, the group "Americans for Freedom of Information" has released copies of President Obama’s college transcripts from Occidental College. Released today, the transcript indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an undergraduate at the school. The transcript was released by Occidental College in compliance with a court order in a suit brought by the group in the Superior Court of California. The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify, for the scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship. This document would seem to provide the smoking gun that many of Obama’s detractors have been seeking.

The news has created a firestorm at the White House as the release casts increasing doubt about Obama’s legitimacy and qualification to serve as president. When reached for comment in London, where he has been in meetings with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Obama smiled but refused comment on the issue. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs scoffed at the report stating that this was obviously another attempt by a right-wing conservative group to discredit the president and undermine the administration’s efforts to move the country in a new direction.

Britain's Daily Mail has also carried the story in a front-page article titled, "Obama Eligibility Questioned", leading some to speculate that the story may overshadow economic issues on Obama’s first official visit to the U.K.

In a related matter, under growing pressure from several groups, Justice Antonin Scalia announced that the Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear arguments concerning Obama’s legal eligibility to serve as President in a case brought by Leo Donofrio of New Jersey. This lawsuit claims Obama's dual citizenship disqualified him from serving as president. Donofrio’s case is just one of 18 suits brought by citizens demanding proof of Obama’s citizenship or qualification to serve as president.

Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation has released the results of their investigation of Obama’s campaign spending. This study estimates that Obama has spent upwards of $950,000 in campaign funds in the past year with eleven law firms in 12 states for legal resources to block disclosure of any of his personal records. Mr. Kreep indicated that the investigation is still ongoing but that the final report will be provided to the U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder. Mr. Holder has refused to comment on the matter.

So I can't help but ask, if all of this is true and I can't be certain that it is, but if it is and Obama/Soetoro was considered a foreign student in college it's unlikely he's not still a foreigner. What would a US president that had a serious secret do in a case like this. Those FEMA camps are starting to look scarier.

Behind the Curtain: Goldman Sachs And "The Club" - Masters Of The Universe

2009-05-05T00:40:42.736Z

Here's a true account of Martin Armstrong on the machinations of the Wall Street Banks and the US Government that reads like fiction; but is reality.

Martin Armstrong, founder of once esteemed Princeton Economics, has been imprisoned without charges and without trial for over 7 years. He has been held in contempt of court for refusing to surrender the proprietary code that Princeton used in it's economic forecasting model- forecasts used by governments around the world, particularly our own government. Armstrong has recently written from jail, on a typewriter, details which will have you question most of what you believe about the U.S. government, Justice Department, and our capital markets. He has been the victim of at least 1 assassination attempt while in prison. The typos in this, his latest missive, are due to it being written on an old-fashioned typewriter. His disclosure that Goldman Sachs and "The Club" are more powerful than our own, and all other governments, will leave you stunned.

Behind the Curtain: Goldman Sachs And "The Club" - Masters Of The Universe

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Business & Law goldman sachs aig th goldman sachs aig

AIPAC spying case : Harman Leakers Likely Committed Felony - American Israel Public Affairs Committee (

2009-05-04T23:39:55.148Z

Secrecy Expert: Harman Leakers Likely Committed Felony

By Zachary Roth - May 4, 2009, 6:08PM

Did the people -- whoever they may be -- who leaked details about Rep. Jane Harman's wiretapped conversation with a suspected Israeli agent, break the law?

The law quite clearly prohibits the unauthorized disclosure of classified information "concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government." And Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy, confirmed to TPMmuckraker: "It seems crystal clear that if this was a FISA wiretap," as appears to be the case, "then whoever disclosed it committed a felony."

Aftergood explained that under FISA, the communications of American citizens "are supposed to be minimized". But in this case, he said, "they were publicly revealed. It seems to be the clearest violation of law in the whole episode."

Aftergood added that it's "all but certain that the wheels are turning at the Justice Department to investigate the leak."

And Melvin Goodman, a former CIA analyst who's now a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, underlined the extent to which a leak of this nature would violate national security protocol. "When American names came up on these intercepts, they were handled very carefully," Goodman told TPMuckraker. "The names would be blacked out."

Goodman added: "The investigation of the leak from a counter-intelligence standpoint would be a requirement."

Asked by TPMmuckraker whether it has begun an investigation, a Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment.

Taking Stock
Before we consider just who such an investigation might implicate, let's take a minute to review what we know about the story at this point, and what it might all add up to.

First, here's the Cliff's Notes version of the key factual elements in the story, thanks to that original story by CQ's Jeff Stein, an earlier story by Time in 2006, as well as recent follow ups from Stein and others:

- Harman was picked up on a 2005 government wiretap, telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would urge the Bush White House to go easy in the AIPAC spying case, in exchange for AIPAC's help lobbying Nancy Pelosi to give Harman the job of House intelligence committee chair. Before signing off, she's alleged to have said: "This conversation doesn't exist."

- Haim Saban, a major Democratic fundraiser and AIPAC supporter, later called Pelosi and threatened to withhold contributions if Harman wasn't given the intel chair post.

- Porter Goss, at the time the director of central intelligence, read the transcript of Harman's conversation, and signed off on the Justice Department's application for a FISA warrant to wiretap Harman herself.

- But Alberto Gonzales, at the time the attorney general, quashed an investigation into Harman, because he needed her to defend the administration's warrantless wiretapping program, and didn't want her credibility damaged. (Harman did indeed go on to defend the program, after the New York Times had revealed its existence.) John Negroponte, then the intelligence czar, also stepped in to get the investigation called off.

- Both Pelosi and then House Speaker Dennis Hastert learned about Harman's wiretapped conversation. Pelosi has said she did not notify Harman.

- Ultimately, Harman didn't get the intel chair job, which went to Rep. Silvestre Reyes, and Saban didn't withhold contributions to Democrats.

- Since CQ's story came out, Harman has claimed not to remember the conversation in question, but has given vague denials that she would have offered a quid pro quo of the kind described by CQ's sources. She has also denied intervening in the AIPAC case, and no information has emerged suggesting she did. In addition, Harman has called on the Justice Department to release all information connected to any investigation into her, including transcripts of wiretapped calls.

- Harman has hired Lanny Davis -- a former Clinton White House counsel who's close to AIPAC -- as a "media advisor".

- Reyes has announced that the committee will investigate the circumstances under which Harman's conversation was wiretapped.

- The AIPAC case that Harman agreed to try to intervene in -- in which two former AIPAC lobbyists were charged with espionage, after receiving classified information from a Pentagon source -- was dropped last week.

Parallel Tracks
So, what does it all mean? That's the harder question.

Among reporters and observers, two parallel ways of approaching the story -- what we might call the "face-value" track, and the "meta" track -- have quickly emerged.

The face-value track is concerned -- as the sources for CQ's original report appear to have intended -- with Harman's potential culpability.

As a legal issue, it's a crime for a public official to pledge to use his or her position to exert influence in exchange for anything of value, but it's far from clear that a credible case could have been built against Harman. Still, as an ethical matter, for a member of Congress to tell a possible foreign agent that she's willing to intervene in an ongoing DOJ case, and, in the same conversation, to talk about how her interlocutor could help her advance her own political ambitions, doesn't look great, to put it mildly.

Kos, for one, has called on Harman to resign. And Michael Scheuer, who resigned from the CIA in 2004 after a 22-year career, told TPMmuckraker that Harman committed a serious breach of national security, and that the incident underlined Israel's outsized influence in Washington. "This country's foreign policy is controlled by Israel," said Scheuer -- who recently wrote in an online op-ed that he was dismissed from the Jamestown Foundation, a foreign policy think-tank, thanks to his outspoken views on the US-Israeli relationship.

But, as Aftergood's comments to TPMmuckraker suggest, the meta track -- which focuses on the identity and motive of the sources for CQ's original report -- may be more consequential.

Flight Of The Gosslings?

So: where might an investigation on that subject lead? Over the last week, several writers -- including Foreign Policy's Laura Rozen, the JTA's Ron Kampeas, and us here at TPMmuckraker -- have been taking a close look at Porter Goss, one of Harman's prime political opponents, both when Goss chaired the intel committee from 1997 to 2004, and when he went on to run the CIA from 2004 before his forced resignation in 2006.

As we wrote last week, Goss's staff, known as the Gosslings, earned a reputation as vicious partisan schemers -- with close ties to the Bush White House -- who were known to use selective leaks to advance their political agenda. We also noted that the investigation into Harman was first reported in October 2006, just three days after Harman had released a report on the Duke Cunningham imbroglio, which further tarnished Goss's legacy.

"Goss was totally inept and corrupt," Ray McGovern, who was a CIA analyst for 27 years, told TPMmuckraker.

Goodman, the former CIA analyst, agreed, telling TPMmuckraker that Goss was "one of the worst committee chairman and one of the worst CIA directors" in history. While he was on the committee, said Goodman, Goss made clear that supporting the Bush administration was his only priority. "Goss was extremely partisan on the committee," Goodman continued. "The agency could do no wrong."

As for whether the Goss camp could have leaked Harman's wiretapped conversation to CQ, Goodman said: "All these people have very long memories, and long knives. The Gosslings were particularly bitter about the way he was cashiered. So I think if they have a chance to extract some sort of price, I'd expect them to do it."

Goodman noted, as others have, that Harman had been one of the few members of Congress to have challenged the Bushies' torture policy -- a subject that, perhaps not incidentally, has been back in the news -- earlier this decade. "Harman went on record questioning whether this was the right policy to be adopting," he said. "I would think that would be remembered."

Goss did not respond to TPMmuckraker's request for comment last week.

Still, the Gosslings are hardly the only possible culprits. CQ's report came just twelve days before the Justice Department announced it was dropping the AIPAC case. According to Goodman, some within the FBI were "incredibly bitter about the way [Attorney General Eric] Holder dropped the case." It's not far-fetched to think that there were those in law enforcement who calculated that leaking Harman's conversation might help put pressure on DOJ to keep the case alive.

So right now, there are still more questions than answers. But it's at least possible that it may soon be the federal government -- not just little old TPMmuckraker -- asking some of those questions.

Military Police Kentucky Derby National Guard

2009-05-04T22:42:38.740Z

Military Police at the Kentucky Derby

Infowars May 3, 2009

A Google News search does not produce a story or even a brief mention of the fact military police were on hand at the Kentucky Derby to keep restless plebs in line. However, an Associated Press photograph, posted on the Yahoo! News website, shows two MPs in combat fatigues with side arms restraining a man at the derby.




	Military police detain a fan who ran onto the track following the running of the 135th Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 2, 2009, in Louisville, Ky.

“Military police detain a fan who ran onto the track following the running of the 135th Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 2, 2009, in Louisville, Ky.,” the photo caption reads.

The photo was also included in a slideshow on the Yahoo! Sports website, although the text of the article does not contain a mention of military police at the event.

“The military has NO BUSINESS policing the citizens except during extraordinarily exceptional times of national emergency by an executive order. This is very disturbing and completely un-American. Maybe even more disturbing is that no one seems to care how quietly and easily we have accepted the burgeoning police state,” an article comment states.

Infowars has reported on numerous instances of military involvement with local law enforcement in violation of Posse Comitatus. In March, we reported on U.S. Army troops dispatched to patrol the streets of Samson, Alabama, after a murder spree.

On April 6, we reported on a DHS, federal, state, Air Force, and local law enforcement checkpoint in Tennessee. On April 3, Infowars was instrumental in the cancellation of a seatbelt checkpoint that was to be conducted in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security and the 251st Military Police in Bolivar, Tennessee.

Last December, we reported on the Marine Corps Air and Ground Combat Center dispatching troops to work with police on checkpoints in in San Bernardino County, California.

On Aprill 22, we reported the deployment of 400 National Guard Combat Support Battalion troops to “maintain public order” at the Boston Marathon.

Last June, Infowars posted an article by D. H. Williams of the Daily Newscaster reporting the deployment of 2,300 Marines in the city of Indianapolis under the direction of FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

Prison Planet’s Paul Joseph Watson reported a story on April 22 covering the assault of a local television news team by an irate police officer in El Paso, Texas. A video taken by the news videographer shows uniformed soldiers working with police officers at the scene of a car accident.

The presence of uniformed and armed military police at the Kentucky Derby is part of an ongoing.

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

Riding in the back seat of a Louisville Metro Police squad car, your intrepid and busted City Hall Examiner looked longingly out the window at Churchill Downs’ fabled twin spires, as we were physically and unceremoniously removed from the track premises by an LMPD officer. But more on that later.

Louisville police were among the 1000 or so law-enforcement officers providing security at the Downs Friday and Saturday, for the Oaks and the Derby. They were joined by significant contingents of MPs and soldiers from the Army Reserves and Kentucky National Guard. Handling a crowd of more than 150,000 horse-lovers takes an appreciable amount of police work.

Louisville wants everyone to have a good time at the Derby. Visitors uniformly comment upon the high level of gracious hospitality they experience in Derby City, and locals know to anticipate gentle treatment from the long arm of the law during the Derby Festival. Not that the cops ever turn a blind eye to serious law violations during the Festival; it’s just that there’s a traditional level of tolerance practiced by our gendarmerie at Derby time.

After the Derby, lots of folks are drunk out of their minds because they hit the Exacta and are rolling in dough (there were 23 Derby Superfecta payouts at $278,503.20 each for $1 bets). Lots more are drunk out of their minds because they bet the paycheck on a bevy of slow nags. Thirteen races, thirteen mint-juleps: you figure it out. Cops won’t let you drive home drunk. Not on Derby day; not ever. But most revelers are leaving on busses, in cabs and limos, or in carpools with designated drivers. So, a staggering gait on Central Avenue will hardly be noticed at 7 p.m. on Derby day. And many people are dressed in attire which would certainly get them arrested at 4th and Broadway on any other day of the year.
Louisville’s finest busted only 44 people at Churchill Downs on Derby day, out of 153,563 visitors to the track. These were mostly Drunk & Disorderlies; along with 6 ticket scalpers and one moron who took a poke at a police horse (he was probably blotto, and mistook the horse for the bum he lost money on in the 12th race). To put this in context, this is approximately the same number of charges LMPD filed against partiers at yesterday’s Screaming Eagles Motorcycle Club bash, down on 28th street (3 dozen traffic violations, 10 misdemeanors, 7 felonies).

LMPD spokeslady Alicia Smiley told the Courier-Journal that Kentucky Oaks day at the Downs on Friday netted 12 busts: 5 for ticket scalping, 2 for outstanding warrants, 1 for drunk, 1 for drunk & disorderly, 1 for menacing & disorderly, 1 for drunk driving, and 1 for drunk, drunk driving, running from the cops, and resisting arrest.

Back in the day, we used to join the young lawyers at the courthouse on Derby morning, hustling the out-of-towners who had been busted at Derby eve bacchanalia. At a couple of hundred bucks a pop, an enterprising barrister could make a couple of grand pretty quick, and still be able to make post time for the first race (where the two grand would usually find its way back into the economic stream). But no more.

Just think of it: 153,563 happily intoxicated gamblers. But no fighting, no gunplay, no pickpockets, and nary a sexual assault to speak of. What’s going on?

It’s the cops. They are there, on the job, to make sure you and your out-of-town guests can have a good time and be pretty much free of concern for your safety. The cops and soldiers are standing guard, sometimes in the rain, to protect your right to have a good time. They don’t get to drink mint juleps, bet on the ponies, or otherwise enjoy the Sport of Kings. They’re on the job. 153,563 patrons are expeditiously moved into and out of Churchill Downs with less of a traffic jam than Bardstown Road on a Saturday night. Churchill Downs has an arrangement with local law enforcement agencies, in which most of the additional expense of law enforcement pay and overtime is covered by the track. Many of these Policemen, Deputy Sheriffs, Troopers, and soldiers would rather be doing something else other than working double shifts, but they’re on guard so that you don’t have to be.

Compare all of this to our sister tracks in the Triple Crown. The Preakness and the Belmont Stakes usually get crowds of around 45,000; but the level of crime and mayhem at those tracks is legendary. Blogger Dan Rodricks calls the Preakness “a time bomb.” Pimlico race track uses rent-a-cops for security, and last year they had to physically eject 126 people from the track, and treated 17 injuries occasioned by the fact that Pimlico still sells beer in cans. A loaded beer can will make a pretty good dent in a guy’s head when tossed from a third-tier seat. Belmont has so many arrests they don’t even keep count anymore; and the problem appears to be historic. A September 3, 1915, New York Times article tells about the 15 arrests the Nassau County Sheriff made at the Belmont Stakes of individuals who were caught gambling. (I’m shocked! Shocked!)

HM at Ascot opening day

Our cousins, the Brits, are hardly more sedate. At last year’s Epsom Derby (they mispronounce it as “Darby”), Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince what’s-his-name, were celebrating the race and the 54th anniversary of her coronation, along with less that 100,000 Britons, while the Surrey Constabulary busted a mere 5 persons: Two arrests were for assault. Three were for drugs possession, disorder, and being drunk in charge of a child. Surry police superintendant Kul Verma told the BBC: "People attended the Derby in good spirits and Surrey Police supported racecourse staff to ensure that race-goers had a safe and enjoyable time.
And at Ascot opening day last year (remember that great song from My Fair Lady?), the British cops busted 54 villains, out of a crowd of 74,000, while HM the Queen recreated along with sundry members of the Royal family and such retinue as Dame Judy Dench and Dame Helen Mirren. Those arrested included “… two boys, aged 16 and 18, armed with a hammer and a snooker ball in a sock…” There will always be an England.

Ascot Police superintendent Mike Ismay told Sporting Life: "A significant number of people attended Royal Ascot today but there were no particular issues for police. There is always difficulty with some people coming back from the races being disorderly and inebriated, but on the whole the vast majority of racegoers are good-humoured and well-behaved."

Now, about that headline. When we said we were busted on Derby Day, the reference, of course, was to our legendary inability to pick winners of horse races. Didn’t come home with a pocket-full of tin. Doo dah. Brother Seedy K. (a/k/a Chuck Kaplan), over at LEO, knows a heckuva lot more about horses than your City Hall Examiner, and he picked Mr. Hot Stuff to win the Derby. Chuck’s a better lawyer than he is a tout: his nag coulda won the Derby, but for the fact that 14 horses crossed the finish line before Mr. (not so) Hot Stuff. Don’t quit your day job, Chuck.

Sgt. John McGuire

The police car? Here’s how that happened: Churchill Downs treats the press with a level of kindness and solicitation worthy of visiting royalty. But this was the first year Miller Transportation ran the Media Shuttle between the press parking lot at Papa John’s Stadium and the track. There were a couple of foul-ups. Saturday evening, your City Hall Examiner, along with the Louisville Sports Examiner, were standing in the drizzle at Gate 10, waiting for the Media Shuttle and talking with the USAR MPs, who were clearly having the time of their lives. When it appeared that the Shuttle was not going to arrive, we were wearily contemplating the 3/4 mile trek back to the press parking lot, lugging our cameras, laptops, and assorted souvenirs (mostly un-cashed pari-mutuel tickets), when an LMPD cop came over to us and asked us if we needed any help.
Sgt. John McGuire, after hearing our tale of woe, and in an abundance of compassion, said: “If you fellas can wait about ten minutes, I’m getting off my shift, and I’ll drop you off at the parking lot. It’s on my way home.” So, that’s how we were physically and unceremoniously removed from the track premises by an LMPD officer.

Sgt. McGuire, by the way, is also the current president of Lodge 614 of the Fraternal Order of Police (the River City FOP), and is quite the gifted conversationalist. He is not only a commanding officer, college graduate, MBA candidate, and all-around decent guy, he is first and foremost a gentlemen. And that describes the overwhelming majority of Louisville’s men and women of law enforcement: Ladies and gentlemen. Louisville, after all, is a town in which uncommon courtesy is commonplace.

CORRECTION: Mr. John Miller advises that Miller Transportation did not provide the Media Shuttle this year, but, in fact, did return several members of the media to their cars at no charge. Our apologies go to Mr. Miller and the fine folks at Miller Transportation for this error.
http://www.examiner.com/

FEMA CAMP MAP

2009-05-04T21:01:39.671Z

FIND THE CAMP(S) NEAREST YOU.

Rice stumbles when asked about torture by fourth-grader

2009-05-04T20:51:57.215Z

John Byrne Raw Story Monday, May 4, 2009

Asked by a fourth grader about the Bush administration’s torture techniques, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appeared to stumble this weekend, repeating the same phrase three times.

After taking heat last week for telling Stanford University students that waterboarding was legal “by definition if it was authorized by the president,” Rice took questions from a bit younger students at a Washington school.

Rice spoke at the Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital, speaking about her “love of Israel,” according to The Washington Post. She then took questions — and an enterprising fourth grader from Bethesda, Maryland posed a whopper.

Paraphrased, the question was: What did Rice think about the things President Obama’s administration was saying about the methods the Bush administration had used to get information from detainees?

Rice said she was reluctant to criticize Obama, and then delivered her answer.

“Let me just say that President Bush was very clear that he wanted to do everything he could to protect the country. After September 11, we wanted to protect the country,” Rice remarked. “But he was also very clear that we would do nothing, nothing, that was against the law or against our obligations internationally. So the president was only willing to authorize policies that were legal in order to protect the country.”

“I hope you understand that it was a very difficult time,” she added. “We were all so terrified of another attack on the country. September 11 was the worst day of my life in government, watching 3,000 Americans die. . . . Even under those most difficult circumstances, the president was not prepared to do something illegal, and I hope people understand that we were trying to protect the country.”

The student’s mother also said her son had effectively been censored by school officials, who’d pressed him not to use the word torture (the questions were screened in advance).

His original question, she said, was: “If you would work for Obama’s administration, would you push for torture?”

“They wanted him to soften it and take out the word ‘torture.’ But the essence of it was the same,” Lerner quipped.

Due to the Alex Jones Channel being sabotaged I'm now hosting the videos from the shows: Full Friday May 1st show Inside

2009-05-04T20:26:41.715Z

TLS is picking up the slack immediately and is going to start posting the video portions of the Alex Jones show in full on the server 2 or so days after release at prisonplanet.tv

http://www.thelasersshadow.com/Video/20090501_Fri_Alex.wmv
Alex welcomes back author and public health authority Dr. Leonard Horowitz who points to an Anglo-American network of genetic engineers manipulating, mutating, and distributing deadly viruses. Alex also talks with Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Niels Harrit, who has written on the collapse of WTC7. Additional guests include NWO researcher and radio talk show host Alan Watt and regular guest Bob Chapman of the International Forecaster.

Don't go nuts posting this url everywhere right now i have to see how my server is going to respond right now with this new load i'm putting on it. This is a test run and if it goes well i will archive all the shows just like this.

MONTAUK AND THE PHOENIX UNDEAD

2009-05-04T20:30:31.400Z

http://www.think-aboutit.com/thinker/index.php/government/246-montauk/1102-phoenix-undead-the-montauk-project-and-camp-hero-today

WIZARD OF OZ MIND CONTROL PROGRAM

2009-05-04T20:15:18.347Z

http://www.apfn.org/apfn/oz.htm

Paging Dick Cheney : Billings from KBR Inc., the Army’s largest contractor in Iraq, constitute the “vast majority” of 32 cases referred by government auditors for criminal investigation

2009-05-04T20:09:56.001Z

Source: Bloomberg

May 4 (Bloomberg) -- Billings from KBR Inc., the Army’s largest contractor in Iraq, constitute the “vast majority” of 32 cases referred by government auditors for criminal investigation, the Pentagon’s top auditor said today.

April Stephenson, head of the Pentagon’s contract audit agency, told the Wartime Contracting Commission that in the agency’s history, “I don’t think we are aware of a program, a contract or a contractor that’s had this number” of referrals.

KBR, then a unit of Halliburton Co., won a contract in December 2001 to provide worldwide support for U.S. troops’ housing, food, laundry and fuel services. The contract’s value grew to $31.7 billion, with most of the work being done in Iraq and Kuwait.

The referrals for potential fraud started in February 2004, almost a year after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, with the most recent referral in March, according to a chart in Stephenson’s written testimony.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aMU...

The Confusion Technique

2009-05-04T20:00:46.336Z

A lesson from law enforcement explaining the Confusion Technique in confidence games

As an English magistrate commented after hearing expert testimony on Coercive Persuasion, "Aren't you in essence really just describing the best con game yet to be designed?"

Coercive persuasion includes hypnosis without knowledge or consent

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

Hubbard the Stage Hypnotist Series

Hubbard, the Master Stage Hypnotist! Index

The Anderson Report
on Hypnotism
in Scientology

Hypnosis in scientology - The Gradation Chart Revealed - LINK

Ex-Member Peter Forde: Hypnotic Coercion Uncovered

Hypnosis Is
What Works in scientology by
Don Carlo

Hubbard Denounced by Inventor of the E-Meter

Hypnosis Demonstration and Collective on Hubbard's Use of Covert Hypnosis - Exposed

Dianetics in the 1952 Journal of Hypnosis and "Instantaneous Hypnosis" by Harry Arons

scientology's Source of the "E-Meter Stress Test" and more from 1943 George Estabrooks

The Rape of the Mind by Joost Meerloo 1957 - LINK

They must be mad !

2009-05-04T19:42:23.780Z

Opinion with the amateurs of SMS:

Will know qu' a message received on your cellphone can cost you 24 hours of police custody.

It is in any case what arrived at young a 29 year old carpenter in France.
According to the "Picardy Mail" which reveals this information, all began Thursday April 16, when the young man is invited to present itself to the police station of the city.

Once on the spot, it is stupor.
The police officers speak to him "It's criminal case, of terrorism, and d' a police custody which could last ten days jail" , he tell to the "Picardy Mail".

The object of all these suspicions?
A SMS sent by a colleague, in whom this last required of him: " To make run off the line a train, have you a solution? ".(it was just a joke, stupid joke but a private joke )

Located by the mobile phone operator, who then lent to the young man a telephone time that it his is repaired, the message is announced at once to the office of the prosecutor.

"Phone operator has the right to consult these messages and the duty to alert the authorities if he's estimates what a crime or an offense is likely to be made" , explains the prosecutor, Eric Fouard, with the "Picardy Mail".

" Vulgar criminal" [LOL just for a joke]
The young carpenter is then placed as a police custody for " not denunciation of crime".

Its error? Not to have alerted the authorities after having received the tendentious SMS. To the police officers, it gives the name of the author of the accused message.
This one is then brought to the police station after having seen its searched residence. The two men will be finally released 24 hours later. " I had the sentiment to become vulgar a criminal" , the carpenter still under the shock remembers.

But for the legal authorities, one does not laugh as regards terrorism. Even less since the arrest of the members of the " group of Tarnac" , suspected d' to have sabotaged lines TGV in November 2008.
A business for which only Julien Coupat remains imprisoned to date.
Julien Coupat is a suspect without proofs or anything else, it's a a political prisoner in France .

All the rules of French laws are killed with the new mad French Zionist president Mr Nicolas Sarkozy ...This "man" creates laws worthy of old Russia !

A lot of French people have send a message to try : "I'm fed-up with life, i'll kill myself"
Nobody is coming to save us ...(But it is in our laws : "you must save a person who will die")

A new dictator was born in France

The Department Of Pre-Crime - Welcome to the year 2525

2009-05-04T19:49:48.680Z

Anyone remember that song "In The Year 2525" by Zager & Evans? It was a great hit. Listen to it here while you read this.

As they walked along the busy, yellow-lit tiers of offices, Anderton said: "You're acquainted with the theory of precrime, of course. I presume we can take that for granted." -- Philip K. Dick, The Minority Report

From COINTELPRO to the illegal targeting of antiwar activists and Muslim-Americans, the FBI is America's premier political police agency. And now, from the folks who brought us Wi-Fi hacking, viral computer spyware and al-Qaeda triple agent Ali Mohamed comes the Bureau's Department of Precrime!

A chilling new report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) reveals the breadth and scope of the FBI's Investigative Data Warehouse (IDW), the Bureau's massive data-mining project.

With more than a billion records "many of which contain information on American citizens," EFF is calling on Congress to demand FBI accountability and strict oversight of this Orwellian project. By all accounts IDW is huge and growing at a geometric pace. According to the Bureau's own narrative,

The IDW received its initial authority to operate in September 2005, and successfully completed a Federal Information Security Management Act audit in May 2007. As of September 2008, the IDW had: 7,223 active user accounts; 3,826 FBI personnel trained on the system, and 997,368,450 unique searchable documents. The IDW transitioned to the operations and maintenance phase during FY 2008. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Investigative Data Warehouse," no date)

EFF notes that "the Library on Congress by way of comparison, has about 138 million (138,313,427) items in its collection."

Kurt Opsahl, EFF's Senior Staff Attorney and the author of the new report said: "The IDW includes more than four times as many documents as the Library of Congress, and the FBI has asked for millions of dollars to data-mine this warehouse, using unproven science in an attempt to predict future crimes from past behavior. We need to know all of what's in the IDW, and how our privacy will be protected."

In 2008, the National Academy of Science's National Research Council issued a stinging report that questioned the efficacy of data-mining as an investigative tool for combatting terrorism.

That report, "Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle Against Terrorists: A Framework for Assessment," concluded that automated programs such as IDW that collect and mine data should be evaluated for their impact on the privacy rights of citizens. An NRC press release stated candidly:

Far more problematic are automated data-mining techniques that search databases for unusual patterns of activity not already known to be associated with terrorists, the report says. Although these methods have been useful in the private sector for spotting consumer fraud, they are less helpful for counterterrorism precisely because so little is known about what patterns indicate terrorist activity; as a result, they are likely to generate huge numbers of false leads. Such techniques might, however, have some value as secondary components of a counterterrorism system to assist human analysts. Actions such as arrest, search, or denial of rights should never be taken solely on the basis of an automated data-mining result, the report adds.

The committee also examined behavioral surveillance techniques, which try to identify terrorists by observing behavior or measuring physiological states. There is no scientific consensus on whether these techniques are ready for use at all in counterterrorism, the report says; at most they should be used for preliminary screening, to identify those who merit follow-up investigation. Further, they have enormous potential for privacy violations because they will inevitably force targeted individuals to explain and justify their mental and emotional states. (National Academy of Science, National Research Council, "All Counterterrorism Programs That Collect and Mine Data Should Be Evaluated for Effectiveness, Privacy Impacts," Press Release, October 7, 2008)

Noting that the Bureau is withholding critical information from public scrutiny, and that mining data gleaned from dozens of disparate sources is at the heart of IDW, EFF reports that the FBI "has identified only 38 of the 53 'data sources' that feed into the IDW," and has refused to hand over remaining documents, the result of a 2006 Freedom of Information Act request.

In a subsequent court action over the Bureau's document stonewall, the civil liberties' group reported that the Department of Justice told the court that "no additional material will be disclosed," despite Obama administration assertions that it has "new policies on open government."

Indeed, a May 12, 2005 email obtained by EFF from "an unidentified employee in the FBI's Office of the General Counsel to FBI General Counsel Valerie Caproni" notes that the author was "nervous about mentioning PIA [Privacy Impact Assessment] in context of national security systems."

The author admitted that "It is true the FBI currently requires PIAs for NS [national security] systems as well as non-NS systems." EFF reports that the author "thought that the policy might change." Accordingly the anonymous writer "recommend[ed] against raising congressional consciousness levels and expectations re NS PIAs." Caproni's response is short: "ok."

However, "congressional consciousness levels" were raised after an August 30, 2006 Washington Post piece exposed the intrusive nature of the IDW system.

The Bureau's response? Several emails revealed the FBI's desire to play down privacy concerns, noting cynically: "I'm with [Redacted] in view that if everyone [Redacted] starts running around with their hair on fire on this, they will just be pouring gas on something that quite possibly would just fade away if we just shrug it off."

Given the corporate media's snail-like attention span when it comes to anything other than puppies trapped in a well or the shenanigans of various "celebrities," it's a sure-fire bet something as mundane as the rights of ordinary citizens "would just fade away."

IDW: A Web-Based Panopticon and Cash Cow for Corporate Spooks

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's report, citing the Bureau's own description, characterizes the Investigative Data Warehouse as "the FBI's single largest repository of operational and intelligence information."

In 2005, FBI Section Chief Michael Morehart said that "IDW is a centralized, web-enabled, closed system repository for intelligence and investigative data." Unidentified FBI agents have described it as "one-stop shopping" for FBI agents and an "uber-Google." According to the Bureau, "[t]he IDW system provides data storage, database management, search, information presentation, and security services."

Documents released to EFF show that the FBI began spending funds on IDW in 2002 and that "system implementation was completed in FY 2005." Version 1.1 was released in July 2004 "with enhanced functionality, including batch processing capabilities."

But as with all things related to "national security," early-on in the game the FBI forged a "public-private partnership" with spooky corporations in the defense and security industry, including Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Convera and Chiliad to develop the project.

As the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) notes in their Federal Contractor Misconduct Database, the San Diego-based SAIC has paid out some $14.5 million in fines on $5.3 billion in revenue largely derived from contracts in the defense, intelligence and security fields.

Misconduct ranged from false claims and defective pricing to conflict of interest violations. Last August, SAIC was forced to drop its bid with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the agency's TOPOFF 5 national disaster drill "after allegations of improprieties in the contracting process" were uncovered, according to Washington Technology.

Indeed, SAIC had been hired by the FBI to build an early version of IDW known as the Virtual Case File (VCF). According to Washington Technology, SAIC was contracted by the Bureau in 2001 to build VCF "but pulled the plug in 2005 after realizing the system would not work."

The 2007 appropriations bill directed the Bureau to "retrieve as much as $104 million from the defaulted VCF contract" and in unusual language for the Senate, "expects FBI to use all means necessary, including legal action, to recover all erroneous charges from the VCF contractor," Washington Technology revealed.

Federal Computer Week reported in 2005 that Aerospace, an independent contractor hired to evaluate the system concluded that SAIC "did a poor coding job" and that it was "virtually impossible to update the system."

Despite these revelations, the San Diego defense and security giant has cornered billions of dollars in new contracts from the Defense, Homeland Security and Justice Departments.

Convera, describing itself as "the leading technology provider of intelligent search," the Vienna, Virginia corporation claims it is "an established leader in the business of search technologies." Apparently, the company is less than sanguine about trumpeting its products for the FBI. A search of their website returned zero hits on the terms "FBI-IDW."

However, Washington Technology revealed in 2004, Convera won a contract worth more than $2 million to "provide an agency-wide search and discovery platform for the FBI."

The contract "covers a perpetual license for the company's RetrievalWare software as the search technology." The 2004 award was "a follow-on from an earlier contract worth approximately $1.5 million ... for search and categorization software for the FBI's Investigative Data Warehouse," the technology insider publication reported.

On the other hand Chiliad avers that they will help "organizations realize the full business value of all of their disparate information resources," and their innovative products "in enterprise search and analysis technology, and virtual information sharing" will "help organizations 'Connect the Dots' and arrive at truly actionable intelligence." In this spirit, Chiliad boasts that the FBI as the lead agency for "domestic counterterrorism" has purchased a "worldwide enterprise license to Chiliad's software."

Founded in 1999, the Washington, D.C.-based firm's customer base include such spooky corporations as defense giant BAE, Booz Allen Hamilton, described by investigative journalist Tim Shorrock in Spies For Hire as a "revolving door" connecting the corporate security world and agencies such as NSA, General Dynamics, ITT, Northrop Grumman, SAIC and many, many more!

According to EFF, the FBI is busily putting these products to the test.

In addition to storing vast quantities of data, the IDW provides a content management and data mining system that is designed to permit a wide range of FBI personnel (investigative, analytical, administrative, and intelligence) to access and analyze aggregated data from over fifty previously separate datasets included in the warehouse. Moving forward, the FBI intends to increase its use of the IDW for "link analysis" (looking for links between suspects and other people--i.e. the Kevin Bacon game) and to start "pattern analysis" (defining a "predictive pattern of behavior" and searching for that pattern in the IDW's datasets before any criminal offence is committed--i.e. pre-crime). (Kurt Opsahl, "Report on the Investigative Data Warehouse," Electronic Frontier Foundation, April 2009)

Accordingly, EFF revealed that then-Assistant Director for the Counterterrorism Division, Willie Hulon said in 2004 that the FBI was "introducing advanced analytical tools" that would "make the most" of IDW data.

Hulon went on to state that when IDW is completed, "Agents, JTTF [Joint Terrorism Task Force] members and analysts," using the new data-mining technology "will be able to search rapidly for pictures of known terrorists and match or compare the pictures with other individuals in minutes rather than days. They will be able to extract subjects' addresses, phone numbers, and other data in seconds, rather than searching for it manually. They will have the ability to identify relationships across cases. They will be able to search up to 100 million pages of international terrorism-related documents in seconds." EFF notes that since 2004, "the number of records has grown nearly ten-fold."

According to an April 1 press release from the American Civil Liberties Union, FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces and the related national nexus of Fusion Centers, comprised of the FBI, local police, the military (U.S. Northern Command) and private outfits in the corporate security world, relying heavily on data-mining and link analysis "have experienced a mission creep in the last several years, becoming more of a threat than a security device."

Indeed, the ACLU noted that Fusion Centers have routinely targeted activists across the political spectrum, relying on specious data-mining techologies as well as paid provocateurs and informants (HUMINT) that label any and all government critics as "extremists" to be monitored and indexed in national security databases. The civil liberties' group averred: "From directing local police to investigate non-violent political activists and religious groups in Texas to advocating surveillance of third-party presidential candidate supporters in Missouri, there have been repeated and persistent disclosures of troubling memos and reports from local fusions centers."

Since 2004, EFF has identified 38 separate data sources feeding the FBI's Investigative Data Warehouse. In addition to the FBI's Automated Case System (ACS), soon to be replaced by the Sentinel Case Management System after the $170 million "Virtual Case File" fiasco briefly described above, IDW compiles information from the following sources:

Secure Automated Messaging Network (SAMNet). SAMNet consists of all message traffic sent by the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, including Intelligence Information Reports (IIRs) and Technical Disseminations (TD) to the FBI. These include Secret classified information but not those designated Top Secret and above, including Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), the highest security classification.

Joint Intelligence Committee Inquiry (JICI) Documents of "all FBI documents related to Islamic extremist networks between 1993 and 2002."

Open Source News, collected from the MiTAP system run by San Diego State University. EFF describes MiTAP as a "system that collects raw data from the internet, standardizes the format, extracts named entities, and routes documents into appropriate newsgroups. This dataset is part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Translingual Information Detection, Extraction and Summarization (TIDES) Open Source Data project."

Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization File (VGTOF), provided by the FBI National Crime Information Center (NCIC). It includes "biographical data and photos" of individuals "who the FBI believes to be associated with violent gangs and terrorism." However, numerous abuses of the VGTOF classification system have been uncovered by the ACLU. According to the ACLU of Colorado, the FBI's JTTF added anarchists and eight separate categories of "extremists" to the VGTOF, including "environmental extremist" and "Black extremist." Indeed, Colorado antiwar activist Bill Sulzman, a campaigner against the weaponization of space, was listed in the VGTOF as a "terrorist," according to an article in the Colorado Springs Independent.

CIA Intelligence Information Reports (IIR) and Technical Disseminations (TD), "designed to provide the FBI with the specific results of classified intelligence collected on internationally-based terrorist suspects and activities, chiefly abroad."

Eleven IntelPlus scanned document libraries "related to FBI's major terrorism-related cases."

Eleven Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Databases.

Selectee List: Copies of a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) "list of individuals that the TSA believes warrant additional security attention prior to boarding a commercial airliner."

Terrorist Watch List (TWL): according to EFF, the "FBI Terrorist Watch and Warning Unit (TWWU) list of names, aliases, and biographical information regarding individuals submitted to the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) for inclusion into VGTOF and TIPOFF watch lists. Also called the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB), the database 'contained a total of 724,442 records as of April 30, 2007'." The TWL has balooned to 1,192,000 names as of May 3, 2009.

According to the ACLU, "members of Congress, nuns, war heroes and other 'suspicious characters' ... have become trapped in the Kafkaesque clutches of this list, with little hope of escape." Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU Technology and Liberty Project said last summer: "Putting a million names on a watch list is a guarantee that the list will do more harm than good by interfering with the travel of innocent people and wasting huge amounts of our limited security resources on bureaucratic wheel-spinning. I doubt this thing would even be effective at catching a real terrorist." While true enough as far as it goes, perhaps the list's true intent is not to prevent terrorism but rather to terrorize the American people.

At the heart of these systems is data mining, that is, the deployment of a vast infrastructure capable of receiving, processing, managing and analyzing data flowing into the system from disparate sources. Indeed, documents released to EFF disclosed that the Bureau's 2008 budget justification explained that "[t]he Investigative Data Warehouse (IDW), combined with FTTTF's [Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force] existing applications and business processes, will form the backbone of the NSB's [National Security Branch] data exploitation system." The FBI also requested "$11,969,000 ... for the National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC)." The FBI claimed:

Once operational, the NSAC will be tasked to satisfy unmet analytical and technical needs of the NSB, particularly in the areas of bulk data analysis, pattern analysis, and trend analysis. … The NSAC will provide subject-based "link analysis" through the utilization of the FBI's collection datasets, combined with public records on predicated subjects. "Link analysis" uses datasets to find links between subjects, suspects, and addresses or other pieces of relevant information, and other persons, places, and things. This technique is currently being used on a limited basis by the FBI; the NSAC will provide improved processes and greater access to this technique to all NSB components. The NSAC will also pursue "pattern analysis" as part of its service to the NSB. "Pattern analysis" queries take a predictive model or pattern of behavior and search for that pattern in datasets. The FBI's efforts to define predictive models and patterns of behavior will improve efforts to identify "sleeper cells."

When this request was submitted to Congress, NSAC said it would "bring together nearly 1.5 billion records created or collected by the FBI and other government agencies," expected to quadruple by 2012. The House Science and Technology Committee was so alarmed that they demanded that the Government Accountability Office investigate the National Security Branch Analysis Center.

ABC News' Brian Ross reported that lawmakers are "questioning whether a proposed FBI anti-terrorist program is worth the price, both in taxpayer dollars and the possible loss of Americans' privacy."

Noting that the the FBI has a history "of improperly--even illegally--gathering personal information on Americans, most recently through the widespread abuse of so-called National Security Letters," ABC reported that congressional investigators are demanding to know "whether there are protections in place to make sure all the data in the program was legally collected."

Given the track record of the Bureau when it comes to targeting political opponents, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Two years later, EFF notes in a letter to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) that the FBI has refused to release documents filed under the Freedom on Information Act and that the Bureau "has published neither a 'system of records notice' (as required by the Privacy Act) nor a 'privacy impact assessment' (as required by the E-Government Act) for the IDW, thus depriving the public of the kind of accountability that usually comes with the creation and maintenance of large database systems containing sensitive personal information."

Citing Leahy's own assertion that the IDW is a "system ripe for abuse," EFF has called on the Judiciary Committee to examine IDW closely and "provide the public with needed assurances concerning its potential impact on the privacy rights of citizens."

12.160 has now been mirrored at TheLasersShadow.com

2009-05-04T18:45:06.729Z

This makes us less of a promising target to the demons now. They will not succeed in deleting the info if they try it. I don't know how copyright BS works with mirroring a ning.com social site. If i get heat i have a back up way to preserve the data that will not involve my server.

http://www.thelasersshadow.com/12160/snardfarker.ning.com/wsdindex.html

contact@thelasersshadow.com

Food security: It Starts With Seed

2009-05-04T18:48:20.171Z

Madison, WI, May 1, 2009 -- With each passing year, the human population of our planet continues to expand. This growth has created a wide ranging strain on our water and soil resources, as well as our environment, creating an unprecedented urgency to address the issue of food security. One way that scientists are working towards this goal is through the genetic modification of seeds, both as a method of improving crop yields as well as enhancing the nutritional composition of foods. A new book published by American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America and the Soil Science Society of America addresses the issue of seed modification for the improvement of food sources around the world.

The newly released book, Modification of Seed Composition to Promote Health and Nutrition, brings together research and interpretations from prominent scientists from around the world who are addressing many food-related human issues through modification of seed composition. Among the wide range of cutting-edge topics that this book covers are the pursuit of grains that could eradicate global malnutrition and the potential growth of vaccines.

This book provides valuable, science-based insights for researchers and practitioners in disciplines ranging from medicine to human nutrition to crop production. Readers from across a spectrum of various disciplines should find a topic of interest in this text. Chapter titles include "Engineering Proteins for Improved Nutritional Value"; "Reducing Peanut Allergy Risks by Means of Genetic Modification"; "Engineering Seeds for the Production and Delivery of Oral Vaccines"; and "Engineering Plants to Produce Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids".

Hari Krishnan, a research molecular biologist with the USDA-ARS and an Adjunct Professor of Plant Sciences at University of Missouri in Columbia, MO, is the editor of the book. Current areas of research in his lab include the genetic modification of soybean seed composition and improvement of biological nitrogen fixation in the model symbiosis between soybean and Sinorhizobium fredii USDA257.

The publishing of Modification of Seed Composition to Promote Health and Nutrition coincides with the initiation of the Biomedical, Health-Beneficial and Nutritionally Enhanced Plants division in the Crop Science Society of America. This division of CSSA focuses on plants as food or feed, as well as the development and evaluation of novel characteristics and compositional quality traits in crops that are important to the health, well being, and nutritional requirements of humans.

###

View the table of contents for Modification of Seed Composition to Promote Health and Nutrition at: https://portal.sciencesocieties.org/Downloads/pdf/B40723.pdf

Modification of Seed Composition to Promote Health and Nutrition can be purchased online through SSSA for $105, Item No. B40723 at: www.societystore.org, by phone at 608-268-4960, or by email: books@crops.org.

The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) is a progressive, international scientific society that fosters the transfer of knowledge and practices to sustain global soils. Based in Madison, WI, and founded in 1936, SSSA is the professional home for 6,000+ members dedicated to advancing the field of soil science. It provides information about soils in relation to crop production, environmental quality, ecosystem sustainability, bioremediation, waste management, recycling, and wise land use.

SSSA supports its members by providing quality research-based publications, educational programs, certifications, and science policy initiatives via a Washington, DC, office. For more information, visit www.soils.org.

SSSA is the founding sponsor of an approximately 5,000-square foot exhibition, Dig It! The Secrets of Soil, which opened on July 19, 2008 at the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum in Washington, DC.

Alex Jones Channel on YouTube SUSPENDED!!!!!

2009-05-04T18:06:08.261Z

good times! not...... air your thoughts.

De-Population

2009-05-04T18:19:39.762Z

There's been a great deal of talk lately, with this apparently fake flu pandemic, about depopulation so I thought it might be appropriate to examine the NWOs attempts or actually their methods of depopulating the planet. Of course the killing of us, the western workers of the world simply isn't in the cards. It's the brown people of the third world we've been duped into fearing (some of us) and they are the ones being systematically culled from the global population.

Let's face it, the NWO needs GM workers, engineers, scientists, educators, health care professionals, planners and other workers here in the US and in similar developed countries. If you're a farmer in Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan, or perhaps a textile worker in India your value to the world order is minimal and you are easily expendable and surely not missed that is, by any one of the elites.

I pulled the following information from the web and am relatively certain that it's quite accurate.

Gideon Polya edits the Body Count web site, and in 2007 published a book titled: "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950." As a biological scientist, he calls it "a carefully researched (country by country)" estimate totaling about 1.3 billion needless human deaths, including 140,000 under-five American infants in the last seven years alone according to UN demographic data. Globally 16 million avoidable deaths occur annually, including 10 million under age-five ones.

*For those of us that are anti-abortion I would more closely examine the figure of 140,000 under-five American deaths during the past 7 years although that isn't the purpose of this post.

Polya states: "There is no public discussion of the actual human cost of First World policies" that are the chief cause of global carnage in all forms, including wars, other conflicts, massacres and genocide, starvation and famine, disease, as well as preventable poverty and neglect. He adds: "An apocalyptic quartet of violence, deprivation, disease and LYING (including suppressing the truth) is responsible for the continuing carnage.

Polya defines avoidable mortality as "the difference between the actual deaths in a country and the deaths expected for a peaceful, decently governed country with the same demographics." His main source was UN Population Division data for "essentially every country in the world since 1950 - (for) population, death rate, birth rate, population breakdown, (and) under-5 infant mortality rate."

As violent occupiers, offending countries include:

-- Britain responsible for 727 million deaths in dozens of countries, including Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan and Iraq;

-- France responsible for 142 million deaths in many countries, including Algeria, Vietnam, Haiti, and Ivory Coast;

-- the US responsible for 82 million deaths in Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere; and

-- Israel responsible for 24 million deaths in Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt.

Polya calls the occupations of Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq (among others) genocide as defined under Article 2 of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide that states:

"In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

Post-1967, Palestine sustained 300,000 avoidable deaths. Post-1990, Iraq had about four million, up to half that number since March 2003, and since 2001, Afghanistan suffered three to seven million. These tolls mount daily, yet are virtually blacked out in news reports.

1.3 BILLION deaths since 1950, are the result of preventable disease, famine and topping my list, war. THIS IS DEPOPULATION on a grand scale and it affects ONLY those least valued by the elite. It amounts to almost 20% of the global population. We'd be well over 7 billion, closer to 8 if these people were still alive.

So, before we go off on some wild goose chase looking at the current flu scare as a method of depopulation, let's examine things a bit more closely.

The current flu scare like other similar scares of the recent past appears to be nothing more than obfuscation. It provides the cover for Congress and other developed nations governments to pass unwanted bills, it places the current wars and their related deaths in a vacuum, and it allows Big Pharma to capitalize financially on a global scale.

The real threat, not only to brown people globally but to YOU AND I right here in the USA is the fraudulent Global War On Terror (GWOT) because the ease with which these psychopaths exterminate foreigners with American cooperation scares the shit out of me, as it should you. We've NEVER fought a war on our own soil. Perhaps the endgame includes a war, right here in the USA, or a terrorist false flag strike that does some serious damage as compared to 9/11; a million deaths could be tolerated if it allowed for massive war and death in countries populated by brown people.

What is the next TERROR that they'll use to psychologically motivate us to kill? I've seen and commented on many posts where the writers fear Islam, brown people, Iraqi's, Iranians, Muslims, Pak's, Afghans, Palestinians and the like. When will we all realize we've been duped into fearing these people so that the NWO can exterminate millions of these people while our very own eyes are blind to the horror?

It's time to wake up. If you fear Islam you've been duped by the NWO.

The realities of life in other countries is as foreign to us here as are the countries and customs themselves.

-- 1.3 billion people live on less than $1 dollar a day, including over 500 million existing in "absolute poverty" according to the World Bank; another three billion survive on about $2 a day; poverty this extreme kills;

-- starvation and famine kill about 15 million children annually;

-- according to the World Health Organization (WHO), one-third of the world population is ill-fed and another one-third is starving; malnutrition affects one in twelve people, including 160 million children under age five; in America, one-sixth of the elderly population is ill-fed, and one out of eight children under 12 endures daily hunger;

-- global hunger, starvation and famine persist in spite of a plentiful world food supply;

-- five million annual smoking-related deaths occur;

-- two million annual alcohol-related deaths;

-- about one million annual suicides;

-- 400,000 annual auto and truck accident deaths;

-- 200,000 annual illicit drug-related deaths; two - three times that number die from legal drugs;

-- about 30,000 annual US gun-related deaths;

-- unknown annual tens of thousands of deaths from pollution, food and water contamination, nuclear radiation exposure, and domestic violence, especially to women, children and the elderly; and

-- according to the World Health Organization: "The world's biggest killer and the greatest cause of ill health and suffering across the globe is listed almost at the end of the International Classification of Diseases (code Z59.5) -- EXTREME POVERTY."

These are real preventable pandemics, not fake ones like Swine Flu being hyped for profit, to spread fear, and divert public attention from real problems like the above-listed ones, the deepening global economic holocaust, the systematic looting of national wealth, and the steady path America is on to becoming a militarized banana republic police state in charge of depopulating the rest of the world to usurp the natural resources we no longer have here.

Cat Parasite Affects Everything We Feel and Do

2009-05-04T17:18:14.552Z

I thought this was interesting enough to post.....

Cat Parasite Affects Everything We Feel and Do

ABC News | Aug. 9, 2006

The parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, has been transmitted indirectly from cats to roughly half the people on the planet, and it has been shown to affect human personalities in different ways.

Research has shown that women who are infected with the parasite tend to be warm, outgoing and attentive to others, while infected men tend to be less intelligent and probably a bit boring. But both men and women who are infected are more prone to feeling guilty and insecure.

Other researchers have linked the parasite to schizophrenia. In an adult, the symptoms are like a mild form of flu, but it can be much more serious in an infant or fetus. Oxford University researchers believe high levels of the parasite leads to hyperactivity and lower IQs in children......

In Brazil, for example, two out of three women of child-bearing age are infected, whereas in the United States the number is only one out of eight.......

So that led to a basic question:

Can a common cat parasite account for part -- even if only a very small part -- of the cultural differences seen around the world?

http://a.abcnews.com/Technology/DyeHard/Story?id=2288095&page=1

Toxoplasmosis Parasite May Trigger Schizophrenia And Bipolar Disorders
ScienceDaily | Mar. 11, 2009

Toxoplasmosis, which is transmitted via cat faeces (found on unwashed vegetables) and raw or undercooked infected meat, is relatively common, with 10-20% of the UK population and 22% of the US population estimated to carry the parasite as cysts. Most people with the parasite are healthy, but for those who are immune-suppressed -- and particularly for pregnant women -- there are significant health risks that can occasionally be fatal......

The parasite infects the brain by forming a cyst within its cells and produces an enzyme called tyrosine hydroxylase, which is needed to make dopamine. Dopamine’s role in mood, sociability, attention, motivation and sleep patterns are well documented and schizophrenia has long been associated with dopamine, which is the target of all schizophrenia drugs on the market.......

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090311085151.htm

Swine Flu Expose a book by Eleanora I. McBean, Ph.D., N.D.

2009-05-04T14:16:32.188Z

This is a great read about the swine flu hoax of the 70,s but moreover the history of vaccines being the problem, not the solution. What happened in the 70's is glaringly similar to what is happening today.

I haven't commented much on the swine flu epidemic since the first story broke because I needed to process all the information coming at me from all directions before making any kind of sense of it all. I have to admit for a moment I too got caught up in the panic but thankfully it was short lived. If I've learned anything at all, the most valuable thing is to not take the vaccine, period....

Long live humanity, beauty, peace, love and what is right! Death to those who lurk in the darkness, prey on weakness, suffering and fear.

http://www.whale.to/vaccine/sf.html

CIFTA to Outlaw Gun Ownership For Americans

2009-05-04T11:54:53.724Z

While speaking, in Mexico City, on April 16th, Barrack Obama stated that he will push the Senate to ratify CIFTA. CIFTA is the Inter-America Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and other Related Materials Treaty.

To date; 29 countries have ratified CIFTA. These are countries that do not have a Bill of Rights or any guarantee of arms ownership, like the Second Amendment.

Read more and take action.

An Interview With Michael Schwartz

2009-05-04T09:46:05.654Z

May 4, 2009

A surge of violence in Iraq has exposed the conventional wisdom dominant among U.S. politicians and the mainstream media that the occupation of Iraq has succeeded in establishing stability.

More than 200 Iraqis died in a series of suicide bombings and other attacks in a 10-day stretch at the end of April. Also killed were some 80 Shia Muslims from Iran who were on a religious pilgrimage.

U.S. and Iraqi government officials blamed the violence on al-Qaeda-linked groups. But there are signs of a deeper conflict between the Shia-dominated government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the Awakening Councils–Sunni militias made up of fighters from the earlier anti-occupation insurgency that the U.S. has been funding and supplying on the promise that they turn their guns on al-Qaeda.

Michael Schwartz is author of War Without End: The Iraq War in Context. He explained to Ashley Smith why the renewed violence is a sign of continuing fault lines in Iraqi politics–and could shake up the Obama administration’s plan to shift U.S. forces to the war on Afghanistan.

At least 41 people were killed when several car bombs detonated in Baghdad's Sadr City on April 29, 2009. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye | AFP)At least 41 people were killed when several car bombs detonated in Baghdad’s Sadr City on April 29, 2009. (Ahmad Al-Rubaye | AFP)

IN THE last couple of weeks, reports of violence in Iraq are sharply up. Why has this happened?

THERE ARE probably two different origins for the new violence.

First, there’s clearly a revival of the Sunni Jihadist groups. They’ve conducted spectacular cars bombings against Shiite civilians. The Jihadists have had the space to stage these attacks because the various Awakening Councils are less concerned about repressing them.

This happened after the recent elections. The Awakening groups nearly swept the elections in the Sunni provinces in Anbar, and they achieved important advances in Baghdad. They expected to have institutional influence of a much greater sort than they have had until now, and thereby secure money and resources. But the flood of resources they expected haven’t materialized.

Instead, the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has been very stingy. It hasn’t hired the Awakening groups into the government as police, military or civilian employees. In fact, it’s been cutting civilian employees in the government because of the reduction in oil revenues.

The Awakening Councils haven’t been able to acquire the political power that would command resource flows into various Sunni communities in Anbar as well as Baghdad. So they are increasingly discontented with their situation.

What else to read on Iraq:

Michael Schwartz’s book War Without End: The Iraq Debacle in Context provides a thorough analysis of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and demolishes the myths used to sell the U.S. public the idea of an endless “war on terror.”

Independent journalist Dahr Jamail’s Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq describes his time in Iraq reporting the other side of the story.

Patrick Cockburn’s Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for Iraq analyzes the rise of the rebel cleric. Also valuable is his book The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq.

The crucial book on Iraq for antiwar activists is Anthony Arnove’s Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal, with a foreword by Howard Zinn.

This has led to a second form of violent conflict–one between Maliki’s government and the Awakening groups.

The most significant recent incident of violence occurred when Maliki arrested several important leaders of the Awakening movement. The most significant part of that battle was that the U.S. was on the side of the Maliki government. This has crystallized the resentment and simmering bitterness that exists in the Awakening groups. They feel that they are being abandoned by the United States, and that the Maliki government is going to try to crush them.

Maliki has to crush them by the end of this year when national elections are scheduled. He understands that his capacity to remain in office is going to depend on winning these elections. As it stands now, local movements–the Awakening Groups in the Sunni areas as well as the Sadrist movement in the Shia areas–will determine the outcome of the election.

So Maliki is trying to crush the Awakening groups so that he can build an electoral base in the Sunni areas, which seems to me to be a fruitless effort. We may see more battles like the one going on now in Mosul, in Anbar (especially Falluja since it remains one of the most recalcitrant areas), or the remaining Sunni areas of Baghdad.

AMID THIS surge of violence, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton stated that the U.S. might not withdraw its troops to their bases, as promised in June. What is the Obama administration up to?

CLEARLY, THEY aren’t going to withdraw into their bases from Mosul and elsewhere. The generals have already said that they cleared it with Maliki, and they’re staying. Once Maliki decides where he is going to attack the Awakening groups, then the United States will have to be militarily engaged in these places as well. The U.S. will say that there’s a new level of violence, al-Qaeda is strong, and they’ll have to keep military troops on patrol.

We’re already seeing the symptoms of that. There was another incident the other day when American patrols were involved in a firefight and killed civilians. We haven’t seen this sort of incident recently because the U.S. hasn’t been doing invasive patrols. But they’ve clearly started doing them again. The Maliki government, backed by the U.S. military, has decided to break Awakening Council strongholds.

Ironically, the U.S. created these strongholds when it decided to cede control of various neighborhoods and cities to elements in the Sunni insurgency. So if it decides to try to dislodge these people, we’ll see fighting like we did three years ago.

SO IT seems, then, like the recent provincial election didn’t solve any of the political tensions in the country. Is that your view?

THE AMERICAN media claimed that the elections were a victory for the U.S. occupation. That was wrong.

There was one political formation in Iraq that ran on a pro-occupation platform–the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. They were annihilated in the election; they got about 4 percent of the vote, while in the past, they were the largest vote getting body in the election.

Maliki, the Sadrists, the Awakening groups, the other Sunni groups and even Kurdish voters ran as nationalists in opposition to the occupation. Virtually everyone who was elected in a provisional council was elected on a platform of ending the occupation as quickly as possible.

SO DID the election strengthen the hand of Maliki’s government?

THAT’S THE second misperception. It’s true that, electorally speaking, the groups allied with Maliki were the largest vote-getters. At that level, he won a victory, but if you actually look at people who were running, they all had an independent political existence and had signed on to a very broad coalition that Maliki was trying to form, based on this isolated government sitting in the Green Zone in Baghdad.

He was signing up groups with real bases in various places, especially in the Shia south. He said that if you affiliate with the Maliki administration, we promise a flow of resources once the election is over that will allow the provisional government to support the people, or for graft and self-enrichment. If he doesn’t give them the resources, the coalition will fall apart.

But now he has no resources to give them. The oil money is being piled up in New York City banks, and other resources are being sucked away by this incredibly corrupt government. These local groups are therefore complaining in large numbers. Maliki has already alienated these people.

At the national level, he looks more and more visible and uncontested. But at the local level, which is more important, he’s in a very tenuous position. Behind the scenes, he has to negotiate the Sadrists, Fadhila in Basra, and elements of the Awakening groups.

He’s attempting to find a coalition that actually will give him some base on the ground. But he has no administrative apparatus through the government, only through the local formations. Even in Baghdad, he has no administrative presence. He has no way of delivering anything to the people.

He doesn’t even have an independent military; it can’t function without the U.S. leading it, supplying it and providing it with both violent and nonviolent support services. All Maliki has is the imprimatur as president, and the backing of the United States.

Every time he negotiates with local formations, they demand that he take a nationalist stance against the U.S. That explains why he denounced the recent U.S. raid as a violation of the Status of Forces Agreement. But on the other hand, he signed off on the U.S. offensive in Mosul.

That perfectly expresses the contradiction in which he lives. Maliki has three masters–the U.S., Iran and the local nationalist forces among Iraqis. He’s constantly juggling his loyalties to maintain a balance. He pretty much knows that he can’t survive without all three of them.

IN THE North, the Maliki government as well as local Sunni Arabs are at odds with Kurdish forces. What can we expect from this growing conflict between Iraqi Arabs and Kurds?

I THINK that the schism between Arab and Kurd in Iraq is going to become more and more visible. The U.S. hasn’t found a means to resolve this conflict in favor of a strong U.S. presence still dominant in the politics and economy of Iraq. That’s why there is so much fighting going on in Mosul.

The U.S. can’t side with the Kurds, because it will turn Mosul into a Kurdish province, which will guarantee endless conflict with Iraqi Arabs. But it can’t allow the Sunnis to drive the Kurds out, because that would lead the Kurds into a rebellious posture towards the U.S. The U.S. is fighting a battle in Mosul in which it’s trying to pacify the people, and not allow ethnic cleansing in one direction or the other. You can see the same situation in Kirkuk.

The worst irony in this is that if the United States weren’t involved, neither side would be able to implement a military victory. Neither one is strong enough to defeat the other.

Defensive wars are a lot easier to fight than offensive wars. If you have sectors of cities dominated by one ethnic group, it’s not that easy to mount an ethnic cleansing campaign unless you have overwhelming military superiority. The U.S. is the one force that provides the overwhelming military superiority in the situation. Thus, the U.S. is thus perpetuating the battle.

The only way the battle can be resolved is through real negotiation between the sides, and that will require that neither side thinking it can win.

In Mosul, for example, Maliki thinks he can win because he thinks he can force the U.S. to be on his side. The Kurds think they can win because they think they can force the U.S. to be on their side. So they continue to fight. And the U.S. plays both ends toward the middle, hoping to exhaust them.

But if the U.S. moves to one side or the other, there will be an incredible bloodbath. That’s what happened in Baghdad when the U.S. effectively sided with the Shia, cleared away the Sunni militias, and allowed the Shia death squads to go in and drive Sunnis out of their neighborhoods.

The U.S. hasn’t yet decided to go either way in Mosul or Kirkuk. It’s sitting there, like a tinderbox.

HOW WILL the increase in ethnic and sectarian violence and the schisms between the Maliki government and other political forces impact the upcoming elections?

IN THE current situation, I don’t think that the Maliki government can afford to have an election. But if they postpone the two upcoming elections, it could be the final straw that breaks the back of the relative stability in Iraq.

The first election this summer is a referendum on expelling the U.S. The government is sure to cancel that. And the other is later in the year, to elect a new national government. When those elections don’t occur, you’re going to see a new nationalist formation.

Obviously, the Sadrists will be central to it. But they won’t be the only one by any means. The Awakening groups will be in there, and so will all the other Shia groups, including the Supreme Council at a local level, which is more nationalist than it is at the national level. Even local groups from Maliki’s Dawa Party will be opposed to the government.

So if the election gets cancelled and people feel denied their chance to expel the U.S. and elect a government that actually represents them, a new crisis will emerge. Maliki and the U.S. generals aren’t dumb. If they see these formations beginning to coalesce into something powerful, they’re going to adopt the one means they have left, which is the military.

If Maliki and the U.S. proceed along this path, they’ll organize new offensives not unlike what they’re conducting in Mosul.

We might see an offensive in Basra, for example, where there’s an independent array of political forces. The city controls oil exports through its port. Basra is also a key center for generating electricity. It can opt out of the national grid and use its electricity for itself. Basra can become a city-state on its own, with lots of resources. If a nationalist formation coalesces there, we could see another invasion of Basra in the cards.

SO WHERE do you think U.S. strategy is heading?

THE GENERALS have a very clear understanding of how dangerous the situation is. That’s why they keep saying they don’t want any troops moved to Afghanistan. While most U.S. troops are currently sitting on bases, the generals think they might need them in the coming months.

On the other hand, even among the military, there’s this sense that this is an endless and unwinnable war. If the U.S. does undertake these military operations, as in Mosul or in Kirkuk, in the near future, they aren’t going to resolve anything. They’ll be about pacification that does not provide a solution.

For example, the U.S. had a huge military presence in Falluja for four years, and it’s still a center of insurgency. As the U.S. starts to withdraw a military presence, Falluja is again becoming a very visible center of political resistance. It would become military resistance if the U.S. turns on it.

The Obama government is going to have to make the same kind of decision that the Bush administration made several different times: Are you going to escalate the war? Or are you going to give ground and start abandoning the-long term goals of the U.S. of organizing Iraqi oil and the economy, making it the host it of a huge American military presence in the Middle East, establishing it as firm ally in the battle against Iran?

Each time, the Bush administration had a crisis, it had to choose which of these goals to compromise on for the short run. For example, it did relax the goal of neoliberalization when it saw that this was wrecking the economy. It allowed the Iraqi government to put 2 million people on the national government payroll.

In the same way, the Obama administration–looking down the barrel of a huge escalation of the war–might allow the Sunnis to establish nationalist areas that are hostile to U.S. presence in the short run, with the plan of retrieving those areas later on. The U.S. could bide its time, leave the Awakening Councils alone and not support the Maliki government’s effort to destroy them at the risk of the Maliki government being displaced itself.

Maybe it would gamble that it could get another government in Iraq that looks okay. They have options. They don’t have to protect the Maliki government to the death. They could allow it to be replaced. Maliki would certainly be replaced by a highly nationalist government that would say the U.S. has to leave. But the U.S. might let it in and do what it did traditionally in Latin America–orchestrate a coup against it later on.

WHAT DOES all this mean for the antiwar movement in the U.S.?

THE ANTIWAR movement’s task is still to make it politically untenable for the United States to sustain its military presence. If the antiwar movement could generate a lot of pressure to say you’ve got to start pulling the troops out, and stop having aggressive patrols and fighting battles, that would be a tremendous victory for the Iraqi people.

The amount of death and destruction in Iraq is still projected to be very high. Stopping the aggressive patrols and withdrawing the troops would reduce the toll dramatically. The political dynamic that would flow out of that might give progressive forces in Iraq some room to maneuver.

If the antiwar movement could keep Obama to his commitment of reducing the U.S. presence to 50,000 troops, which was lame to begin with, that alone would help prevent a re-escalated war and the rate of death going sky-high again. But the antiwar movement also has to continue to demand the complete withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

Western Relief Agencies in Darfur: Shocking Facts

2009-05-04T08:10:58.412Z

The Sudan Government’s decision to expel 13 foreign aid agencies from Darfur has provoked much controversy over this step’s futility as far as the making of appropriate peaceful atmosphere in Darfur is concerned. It might backfire and provide the west with reasons to severely punish the Sudan on basis of allegations that such decision would be detrimental to the displaced people in Darfur’s relief camps.

The decision was followed by the Sudanese government’s proclamation of dispensing with all the other western organizations and instructing them to leave within one year.

This, again, has led to questioning both decisions’ impact on the relief work in Darfur. Does Khartoum have an actual plan to replace such organizations without creating gaps that could lead to rekindling the human crisis in Darfur?

The number of the expelled foreign aid agencies is just 13. They are American, British, French, Canadian, and Dutch agencies, but this does not necessarily mean there are no other relief agencies from these countries or other countries working in Darfur.

The other foreign aid agencies working in the Sudan are 118, apart from two main international charities, 13 Islamic and Arab relief and charity agencies, as well as 55 local Sudanese ones.

There are documents and ample evidence that the expelled aid agencies were carrying out intelligence work for their countries. They also worked to maintain the problem of the displaced for purposes of profits as their staff members receive huge payments which may amount to 70% of the relief funds they obtain for the poor in Darfur. They also serve other political purposes of pressuring the Sudanese government.

In other words, the 13 western agencies expelled constitute only 8% of the working relief agencies on the ground. There are 19 American agencies, of which five only were expelled, 16 British agencies, of which four only were expelled, 10 French agencies, of which two only were expelled, in addition to one Canadian and one Dutch agencies.

Twenty two out of these 118 agencies have Zionist backgrounds and are run and funded by Zionist organizations based in New York, Washington and some European countries.

It is not true that these organizations inject huge money or aids into Darfur. They basically distribute the foods offered by the UN International Food Program without providing any supplies to Darfur’s three provinces, Southern, Northern and Western.
Contrarily, these organizations have been accused of usurping most of that they received of relief aids and supplies allocated for the Darfuris for their own and for their administrators’ benefit.

The International Food program donates about 60 thousand tons of food per month to Darfur. The Sudanese Red Crescent Organization distributes about 40% of this amount, whereas the foreign and local organizations distribute around 60%. This simply means that if these foreign organizations are replaced by other Arab and Islamic relief organizations, the crises and the catastrophes the west and the foreign organizations are warning of, due to the expulsion decision, will never occur.

Given that, the great challenge the government and the national and Islamic organizations are facing is filling the vacancies created by the expulsion of these foreign organizations and getting fully prepared to shoulder the responsibility of distributing the relief supplies, providing medical teams, trained personnel to operate water wells, and providing health devices and services. This way, Khartoum could prove its ability to solve its own problems irrespective of the West’s agenda.The key gain for Khartoum is when it “Sudanizes” voluntary and relief work, This is apt to eliminate the West’s interference in Darfur’s crisis or aggravating it through these foreign agencies that have turned into “states within the state” in Darfur.

These expelled agencies managed to some extent to encourage Darfur’s dissidents, particularly the Zaghwans, to rise strongly against the government.

It is no secret the agencies in questions used to distribute donations to the Darfuris to win their satisfaction and to employ some of them to work against their country. This was through implicating them in false witnesses of mass murder and rape crimes, to which there is no tangible evidence, neither by existence of mass graves or collective women’s complaints.

The intelligence activities undertaken by these agencies have already been experienced in south of Khartoum, South of Sudan, where they have played the most serious role in inciting the separation of the south and providing relevant information to America.

Among the most famous of the organizations and characters that have been deeply involved in dealing with the Congress and the US Intelligence are the British Baroness Cox and her Christian Solidarity. The Baroness Cox played a part through the Christian Solidarity in supporting the Popular Movement for Sudan’s Liberation (PMSL), which is currently represented in the government.

Some Sudanese evidence has emerged that these organizations cooperate with the American intelligence in support of the South against the Khartoum government as part of the scheme of separating the south and the north of Sudan. The real secret why the Europeans heavily support the American schemes of intervention into the affairs of the Sudan and Darfur lies mainly in the missionary Christianization role these relief Western agencies are said to play there.This role is linked also to the agenda of the European and American intelligence regarding securing interests in Sudan’s oil reserves. This is the fact that urged the Priest John Danforth, former US envoy to the Sudan, to say: “The cessation of the civil war in Sudan could open the door for it to become a major oil country in Africa!”.

The missionary Christianization role of some of these organizations has also been indicated by Kotbi Al-Mahdi, former political advisor to the Sudanese president, who accused them of flaring up sedition in southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains and eastern Sudan, saying that “They have sought further insurrection in Darfur.”

Why the Foreign Relief Agencies Were Expelled?According to Sudanese official reports, which IslamOnline.net had access to, the 13 agencies were expelled due to obvious acts of intelligence and that some of them had nothing to do with relief work. The expulsion of these organizations has basically little to do with the decision of the prosecutor of The International Criminal Court arrest warrant against President Al-Bashir.

Monitoring the activities of such agencies confirmed beyond doubt that they have been for many years doing full intelligence work far from their normal humanitarian duty. However, Khartoum had been so patient and tolerant until provoked by the ICC warrant of arrest.

The Sudanese Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs has obtained files and documents as evidence kept at the office of its Sudanese Commissioner. These documents indicate the fishy roles of the involved agencies and the amount of harm they were inflicting on the situation in Darfur, in particular, and in the Sudan in general.

There are documents against such agencies concerning forced displacement of the people of Darfur through temptations, pressures and deception pushing them to leave for Europe and Israel, in an act of illegal human trade. They were also involved in destructive activities through keeping persuading dwellers of some camps not to leave them and to take arms against the government.

They also incited some armed factions to take arms inside the camps like what happened in the notorious camp of “Kalimat”. Some of these agencies have also written false intelligence reports and sent them to the ICC. They were misleading reports obviously financed by some Zionist organizations.

Some of the violations and infractions by such foreign aid agencies could be detailed as follows:

1- The IRC had an agreement with the ICC in 2005, according to which the Committee provides the court with information, documents and witnesses as well as ensuring the witnesses’ safety in coordination with the UN mission in the Sudan.

2. In December 2004, four Dutch journalists brought by the IRC were arrested as they had photos of some Janjaweed members near the camps and a fabricated film about hold-up looting operations, originally carried out by two staff members working in the humanitarian field.

The film also showed false attempts of raping of displaced women and interviews with displaced witnesses about battering and torturing operations allegedly carried out by the government authorities.

The journalists finally admitted to all that violations and a criminal prosecution was started with the witnesses’ statements documented, but the case was finally dropped off after the mediation of the Dutch ambassador in the Sudan.

3- The CNN broadcast a statement made by Mrs. Roberta, an official in the organization, describing what was going on in Darfur as the most hideous genocide in the 21st century. The statement claimed that government members displaced the people in Darfur, raped women and dumped children into the fire before their parents’ eyes.

When the organization was questioned about that statement, it apologized and claimed that the statement made was a personal view of Mrs. Roberta, and that she was just a staff member and did not represent the organization.

4- The Organization’s president, Nicky Smith, made a statement alleging the commitment of 200 cases of murder, rape in the camp without providing a single piece of evidence. She considered that it was an indication of the deterioration of the security status and claimed that the statement was an organization document.

5- In August 2005, the organization sent letters to the then American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, following her visit, requesting her to continue the pressure on Khartoum and the enforcement of the resolution 1591. She organized media campaigns on the Internet to collect signatures to be sent to the US President directly for the replacement of the African Union forces troops by international troops.

6- In 2006, the organization director was summoned by the Organizations Department Director General of the National Security and Intelligence Authority and was faced with these breaches and abuses. She provided a documented apology and requested opening a new page of cooperation to which she was not committed.

7- The organization has carried out some mock so-called projects in Darfur on issues¬– such as women’s mental health, the rule of law, policies of protection, etc– that were just discussed in coffee meetings for women to promote their psychological comfort.

During these filmed meetings, women were pushed to talk about any abuses they were subjected to, which were meant to collect and fabricate information on their mouths.

What’s really interesting is that the organization had been working without any technical agreements, and that’s why it was first stopped in 2008.

8- The organization deported a number of the displaced people of Darfur to some European countries while others were sent to the ICC to bear witnesses.

9- For the organization to fulfill some of its goals, it prepared regular intelligence and information reports in addition to security surveillance reports on Darfur. It also prepared a report on the alleged forced displacement of the tribe of Al Zaghawa, and on the government stirring up of tribal disputes.

(2) US “CARE International”

1- It prepared security reports which were basically security and military records as well as accusations against the government of shelling civilians in the villages of the northern province of Darfur.

2- The organization’s local director, Mr. Parker, prepared a paper that is figuring out scenarios of the replacement of the African Union troops by International ones.

The report included a security and intelligence analysis which recommended the possibility of the Sudanese government approving the advent of international forces in a dignified manner.

ACF’s Cosultant, Mrs Silvy, suggested that the government practiced genocide, arson, and civilian abduction.

(3) French “Action Against Hunger” (ACF)1- The French Action Contre la Faim (ACF) is an intelligence interface that prepared informational intelligence reports, including a letter that was discovered and carried an alleged indication that the area of Umm Khairat in Darfur was bombarded by the Janjaweed on Dec. 5, 2004.

A criminal case was filed against the organization that finally apologized for that and claimed it had conducted an investigation on the typing of that information on its official stationery, but the investigation yielded no results!.

2- Silvy, the organization’s consultant, delivered a lecture, at the French International Institute of International Relations in 1999, in which she accused the Sudanese government of using the weapon of hunger against some people of Darfur in the south and in Nuba Mountains. She suggested that the government practiced genocide, arson, and civilian abduction operations.

(4) French “Solidarity”

1- In March 2007, the Radio of France cast a long interview with the organization’s director in which he alleged that the Janjaweeds continued assaulting and attacking the Zaghawa tribes and that there was genocide and that the Sudanese government backed up the Arab militia and concluded that the war would not stop.

2- In 2005, the organization’s distribution officer, Mr. Jill, supported the rebels by providing them with mobile recharge cards.

3- Barrels full of fuel prepared by the organization to be sent to the rebellious movements were discovered. A case was filed against the organization for thatviolations but it was finally dropped through diplomatic interventions.

(5) American “Mercy Corp.”

1- This organization played a number of intelligence roles in the region of Abyei, disputed between the northern and southern Sudan, to create commotion among the people of Abyei of the Dinka tribe (African) and Missiriya tribe (Arab).

It also incited the Dinka people to create chaos in the region and beguiled them into believing they are the owners of the region and oil, and that they should fill the administrative vacuum and exploit the volatile situation.

2- The organization practiced activities that had nothing to do with humanitarian work in Kurmuk, a city in the Blue Nile Province of Sudan. It established a local radio station called the “Society Radio”.

It broadcast programs that incited hatred and urged the citizens to separate from Sudan. It also initiated programs for church preaching.

(6) Dutch “Doctors Without Borders”

1- In October 2004, the organization published a report on mass killings in Darfur. The report claimed that the Sudanese government practiced genocide against civilians by using the Janjaweed pro-government militias, and that the civilians could not find a safe haven.

2- In March 2005, the organization published another report on rape in Darfur, and alleged that the rape and sexual violence were practiced by the Sudanese government and its allied militias on an ongoing basis.

The Secretary General of the United Nations used quotes form the report in his periodic report to the Security Council, citing that the organization treated 5,00 rape cases from Darfur in the UN clinics.

A criminal case was filed by the Sudanese government against the organization that was unable to prove its false allegations.

The organization’s national employees, including the medical teams, denounced the report, refuted its claims, and noted that it was prepared with intentional malice. Then, the organization sought to exercise diplomatic pressure to have the case dropped.

Endeavors led by the United Nations representative, Jan Pronk, the one who submitted the report to the Secretary-General, who, in turn, sought the support of the Security Council. The Dutch Ambassador and the Ambassador of the European Union also intervened to drop the case.

Finally, the decision of the Sudanese Minister of Justice was to drop the case and give a final expulsion warning to the organization, and to depose its director, Darfur coordinator, out of the country for the untrue reports.

(7) American “CHF International”

1- The organization kept receiving a lot of women in its headquarters in the state of North Darfur and managed to convince them to lie to visiting guests and officials of international bodies about false cases of rape and sexual violence by the pro-government forces of the Janjaweed militia and to claim that these forces burned their villages and killed their men and children.

On a visit of Jan Waveland, Assistant of UN Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, the organization denied admission of the accompanying Sudanese Minister of Humanitarian Affairs.

2– It selected a number of displaced women from camps of Abu Shouk to represent the organization in Abuja, after instructing them to tell untrue stories and reverse the situation intimidating them by rumors about rape they would face at the hands of the Janjaweed.

3– It exploited some mayors and sheiks of tribes through financial aids and mortgage servicing in return for their collecting information for the organization. They were also forced to attend meetings of the organization at which they are incited to rise against the government.

(8) British “Save The Children”

1- The organization issued, in November 2002, a statement on the security situation in the state of North Darfur claiming that the government warplanes bombed positions only 50 meters from its food distribution center, although there were no fighting in that period of time.

2- It published information, in July 2004, which alleged that more than half a million children from Sudan’s Darfur had been forced to flee their villages, and that a million people were forced to leave their homes by militias supported by the government.

PROTECTED STATUS

2009-05-04T07:22:33.870Z

House agrees to muzzle pastors with 'hate crimes' plan 'This is first time protected status given to whatever sexual orientation one has'

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Posted: April 30, 2009
12:30 am Eastern

© 2009 WorldNetDaily

The U.S. House today approved a federal "hate crimes" bill that would provide special protections to homosexuals but leave Christian ministers open to prosecution should their teachings be linked to any subsequent offense, by anyone, against a "gay."

The vote, 249-175, came despite intense from Republicans who argued the measure would create a privileged class.

Bishop Harry Jackson Jr. of the High Impact Leadership Coalition also condemned the action, offering a warning about the nation's future.

He was interviewed on the issue by Greg Corombos of Radio America/WND, and the audio of his interview is embedded here:

Jackson said the action puts "sexual orientation" in a specially protected class under federal law.

"Based on history, it really isn't something that needs to be protected," he said. "There's a problem that this is going to mark the first time that a protected class status is given to … whatever sexual orientation one has."

He said the experience in other countries has led to prosecution of Christians. In Sweden, for example, a minister was sentenced to 30 days in jail for preaching from Leviticus.

Similar state laws have resulted in similar results. In Philadelphia several years ago, a 73-year-old grandmother was jailed for trying to share Christian tracts with people at a homosexual festival, Jackson said.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said H.R. 1913 will create "thought crimes," and U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said it will end equality in the U.S.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, charged the plan will divide America into groups of more favored versus less. He again cited USC Title 18, Section 2a, the foundation of H.R. 1913, which says anyone who through speech "induces" commission of a violent hate crime "will be tried as a principal" alongside the active offender.

But there is no epidemic of hate in the U.S., he noted.

Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., introduced a striking argument: If Miss California, Carrie Prejean, who supports traditional marriage, had slapped the homosexual judge who derided her on the stage under H.R. 1913 she could be indicted as a "violent hate criminal," facing a possible 10 years in prison. But, Forbes said, if the homosexual judge had slapped her, she would have had no special protection under H.R. 1913.

Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, said, "The Anti-Christian Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives has acted today to lay the legal foundation and framework to investigate, prosecute and persecute pastors, youth pastors, Bible teachers, and anyone else whose Bible speech and thought is based upon and reflects the truths found in the Bible.

"A pastor's sermon could be considered 'hate speech' under this legislation if heard by an individual who then acts aggressively against persons based on 'sexual orientation.' The pastor could be prosecuted for 'conspiracy to commit a hate crime'" she said.

"This Democrat-controlled Congress has now elevated pedophiles and other bizarre sexual orientations, as well as drag queens, transgenders, lesbians and gay men to the level of protection of that already given to African Americans, Hispanics and other minorities in the law," she said.

House Republican leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the Democrats have placed a higher value on some lives compared to others, a decision he said is unconstitutional.

Not happy with just making Christian teachings on homosexuality illegal, supporters have approved a law that also provides grant money for so-called "sensitivity-training" to provide pro-homosexual propaganda, noted the public-interest legal group Liberty Counsel.

When a plan virtually identical to the current Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 was developed in the last Congress, Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., admitted during a hearing on the bill it could be used to prosecute pastors merely for preaching against homosexuality under the premise that they could be "inducing" violence in someone.

The bill ultimately failed then because President Bush determined it was unnecessary – the crimes banned in the legislation already are addressed by other laws – and it probably was unconstitutional.

"The federal hate crimes bill is bad news for everyone," said Brad Dacus of Pacific Justice Institute, who testified in Congress against the bill two years ago.

"Instead of treating all crime victims equally, it creates a caste system where select groups, such as gays and lesbians, are given greater priority in the criminal justice system. This is not progress; it is political correctness. In other nations and states, the adoption of hate crimes legislation has been the first step toward widespread suppression of speech and ideas critical of homosexuality," he said.

Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel has spoken out against H.R. 1913 a number of times.

"As has proved to be true in both Europe and Canada, this Orwellian piece of legislation is the direct precursor to freedom killing and speech chilling 'hate speech' laws. It represents a thinly veiled effort to ultimately silence – under penalty of law – morally, medically and biblically based opposition to the homosexual lifestyle," he said.

Barber said the 14th Amendment already provides that victims of violent crimes are afforded equal protection under the law "regardless of sexual preference or proclivity."

Barber cited FBI statistics showing there were about 1.4 million violent crimes in the U.S. in 2007, but only 1,512 were presumed to be "hate crimes." And two-thirds of those involved claims of "hateful" words, touching and shoving.

Under the specifications of the law, a Christian needn't touch a homosexual to face charges, he noted.

"If the homosexual merely claims he was subjectively placed in 'apprehension of bodily injury' by the Christian's words then, again, the Christian can be thrown in prison for a felony 'hate crime,'" he said.

WND reported previously that the plan was introduced by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., who said, "The bill only applies to bias-motivated violent crimes and does not impinge public speech or writing in any way."

Section 10 of the act states, "Nothing in this Act, or the amendments made by this Act, shall be construed to prohibit any expressive conduct protected from legal prohibition by, or any activities protected by the free speech or free exercise clauses of, the First Amendment to the Constitution."

However, critics cite United States Code Title 18, Section 2, as evidence of how the legislation could be used against people who merely speak out against homosexuality. It states: Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal.

Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, warned Christians to speak up before the legislation passes. He said they are acting like the proverbial frog in a slowly heating kettle that boils to death.

"They need to wake up and take action to oppose this threat to religious liberty."

The Causes Of Suicide Terrorism - They Are Not What You Think

2009-05-04T06:22:37.083Z

Proof that suicide bombers are not drug-taking religious fanatics with a permanent grudge against the freedoms that westerners enjoy; more accurately they are moderately well educated individuals fighting for freedom from occupation of their land by western troops.

University of Chicago Professor Robert A. Pape refutes the common myth that suicide bombers are young, uneducated and easily led misfits who are inspired by religious fervor and driven by poverty and alienation. Rather, he says they tend to be educated, socially integrated and highly capable people who would live a good life if foreign occupation of their territories had not turned them into suicide bombers.Pape lists community prestige, revenge and religious feelings as three motivations behind suicide terrorism, but he says these are effective only in the presence of a foreign occupation.

“Ninety-five percent of all suicide attacks in the world are driven by foreign military occupation,” says Pape.

He thinks that the sudden increase in suicide attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2005 can only be explained by the fact that in that year NATO powers began their occupation of Kandahar and eastern Afghanistan. He recalls that as soon as Israel pulled out of Lebanon in 2000, Hezbullah stopped all its suicide attacks. Pape is critical of Western leaders who keep calling on Muslim clerics to defeat the extremists and “be good Muslims.” According to Pape, the solution to suicide terrorism is for foreign occupying forces to pull out their ground troops, while all Muslim leaders need to do is cooperate with Western leaders who will do that.

Sunday’s Zaman spoke with Professor Pape, who has compiled the largest database of suicide bombings in the world, with about 2,000 cases analyzed in detail. He published his groundbreaking book “Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism” in 2005, and his database has continued to grow since then. We asked Pape, who traveled to Turkey to participate in a NATO conference on fighting suicide terrorism, about his earlier work on air-bombing strategies and concepts he has developed, such as “coercion by punishment” and “off-shore balancing.”

Is anyone who carries a bomb and blows it up a suicide terrorist?

Well, first of all, I use the term “suicide terrorist” not for political reasons. If someone wants to call them “self-martyrs,” I have no problem with that whatsoever. I am using this term simply because it is readily more understandable to Western readers and listeners. In defining what a suicide terrorist is, I have two criteria: One is that they have to kill themselves, and second, it has to be on a mission to kill others. We don’t count someone who kills himself or herself to avoid capture.

In your book you refute the commonly accepted “suicide terrorist stereotype.” Why is that?

Our study shows that suicide terrorists are overwhelmingly deeply integrated into their local communities. They are not isolated. Out of over 2,000 we have in our database, only a handful could be called depressed. It is not that they are marginalized, isolated people thrown into depression; these are people who are politically active, reasonably well educated. They are people who would go on [to have] a productive life had they not become deeply angered at the presence of foreign combat forces threatening the territory that they value.

So you claim that foreign occupation is one major reason why reasonable, rational people are turning into suicide bombers?

Ninety-five percent of all suicide attacks in the world are driven by foreign military occupation. Just take the example of Afghanistan. There was no suicide terrorism before the American forces were deployed in Afghanistan. The numbers were reasonably low up until 2005. Then something happened in that year that caused suicide terrorism to increase. There is a very similar pattern in Pakistan. These are Afghan nationals hitting NATO military targets. Why?

For the first couple of years of our occupation of Afghanistan, we were not occupying the country. We only stayed in Kabul. Then in October 2003, the UN gave NATO a mandate to occupy the rest of the country. NATO developed a plan to occupy the country in stages. By late 2005, when we started to occupy southern and eastern Afghanistan, we created this surge in suicide bombings in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Seventy-five percent of all the Afghan and Pakistani suicide bombings happen in this border zone.

The key thing here is to see that US combat operations are driving suicide terrorism around the world. What is happening is not that you are getting a global jihad. What is happening is that you are getting local opposition to a military presence. Because of these findings, I am concerned about sending new troops to Afghanistan.

I used to think that suicide bombers have personal revenge issues. I know only the Palestinian cases, of course.

We have found that there are three incentives: One is prestige; they want to be heroes. To that end, they are making martyrdom videos. Second is revenge, I mean, revenge for atrocities directed against family members or friends. And the third is religion. But what is really important is an additional mixed motive: anger at the presence of foreign military on the territories or threatening those territories. If you take that additional motive away, those other three don’t seem to produce suicide terrorism.

Let me give you an example. Lebanon is a very interesting case by means of having no suicide bombings recently. Most people study suicide terrorism when it does happen but not when it doesn’t. I do both. In Lebanon, there was no suicide terrorism before 1982, when Israel invaded southern Lebanon. In 2000, Israel leaves and suicide terrorism goes to zero. I mean the Hezbullah terrorism does not follow Israel to Tel Aviv. That not only means that this isn’t about religious fanatics looking for an excuse to get a quick trip to heaven, but it also means that only revenge is not enough to become suicide bombers. There were a lot of people who had been abused by those 18 years of occupation, but they didn’t run after the Israelis for revenge.

Why do people think that suicide bombers are drug-taking religious fanatics with all kinds of psychological illnesses?

There are several reasons. Before 9/11, there wasn’t much serious study of terrorism. It was studied by governments, and these studies were not subjected to peer review. On 9/11, I was not a terrorism expert. I was studying air forces. So the day after 9/11, I went and bought a Quran because I wanted to know what is wrong with Islam. But then, as I studied the data, I came to realize that the phenomenon was not rooted in religion at all.

The second explanation is related to the natural human tendency that treats our villains as monsters. It is a great way to come to grips with evil. When there are awful acts being committed, it makes us more uncomfortable when we realize that they were done by ordinary people. Look at the Holocaust, for example. This is one of the most villainous events in human history, but it was perpetrated by ordinary Germans. They were not really strange, indoctrinated, brainwashed people. They were not Frankenstein-like monsters. They were just ordinary people caught up in a certain ugly time. This makes it even more unbearable.

The first Palestinian suicide bombing came after 20 years of occupation. The first Iraqi suicide bombing came on the third day of the American occupation. How do you explain this?

It is becoming more popular because it has the reputation of being politically successful. I don’t think that the issue is that it is becoming tactically easier or that we have more religious fanatics today than 20 years ago. In October 1983, there was a truck bombing in the marine barracks in Beirut that killed 231 marines. As a result of that attack, just two months later Ronald Reagan decided to pull all the American soldiers out of Lebanon. That same day the French did the same. That event congealed the conventional wisdom that suicide terrorism produces powerful effects. When the Tamil Tigers organized their first suicide attack in 1987, they actually carbon copied what happened in 1983.

In the Palestinian case, if you look at the trajectory of the settlements year by year, you will see that an increase in settlement activity corresponds amazingly to the violence. I think the reason that the suicide attacks have slowed down recently is precisely because the geographic reach of the settlements has been reduced. Settlements are growing still, but they are growing vertically, not horizontally.

Are you saying that the only solution is to end the occupation?

I am. Pull out the ground troops, but not immediately and not all at once. The US has to adopt strategies that pursue American interests but that do not rely on ground forces. I think that our strategy should be what I call offshore balancing. The US and the West have to withdraw their ground forces over a period of three to four years from Iraq and the rest of the peninsula and rely on navy forces and air forces offshore. We don’t need to micro-manage the domestic politics of countries; we don’t need to be picking the prime minister of Iraq every single time.

What can the Muslim intellectuals do to help?

Political action… I think it was a mistake for the West to encourage Muslim clerics to beat the radicals among them and be better Muslims. We need the Muslim leaders to push forward political solutions to problems. That means supporting political leaders in other countries who look for diplomatic solutions. This summer there is a crucial election in Afghanistan. This election has to be free and open. It should not be an instance where we are giving people an opportunity to vote for [Hamid] Karzai, who needs to win. I think that is something the Muslims all around the world should cry out for. They should ask for true, real democratic elections in Afghanistan. They should want that it should be monitored by international organizations. If it turns out that the elections are biased in favor of simply keeping Karzai in power, the situation there could become even worse.

Some experts claim that we will see nuclear or chemical suicide terrorism in the future.

If the terrorist organizations acquire nuclear weapons, you will certainly find suicide bombers around it. They won’t be able to set up nuclear plants and produce more than one or two nuclear weapons. They won’t just risk being noticed by the security forces.

By means of chemical weapons, we have to worry about a prolonged occupation in Iraq or Afghanistan. The occupation is not only creating more suicide attacks, but it is also encouraging scientists to become part of the terrorist groups. A 20-year-old college kid can be a good suicide bomber, but he won’t produce sarin gas. But a 35-year-old biochemist can do that.

In “Bombing to Win” you developed the concepts of “coercion by punishment” and “coercion by denial.” Can you evaluate the failure of the Israeli forces in Lebanon with these concepts?

They apparently didn’t read the book. With the coming of airplanes, people started to think that they can simply bomb civilian populations and have a coercive effect on the people and on the governments without having to beat the military forces. That logic sounds very reasonable. But this has been tried now — throughout the entire 20th century — about 40 times, and we have almost no cases of success.

In 2006, the Israeli strategy was to weaken Hezbullah. They believed that they could weaken Hezbullah both by killing Hezbullah fighters and by weakening the political support Hezbullah is taking from the community. That is why they hit some of the bridges and road networks around southern Beirut. They were trying to separate southern Beirut from the electric power grid. But this also had a big effect on the people. This strategy not only failed, but it actually produced a backlash, where [Hassan] Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbullah, was able to organize a rally a month after the operation in Martyrs’ Square in Beirut, and something like a half million Shiites showed up. It went from having the support of a few thousand people to almost every Shiite in the country. When the Israeli soldiers were kidnapped, Hezbullah was being criticized in Egypt, Turkey and Jordan. What happened six weeks later? Hezbullah became the hero. This was as much of a failure, a disaster that could be possible for everyone but especially for Israel.

Perhaps it's time to end our Global War On Terrorism. Everyone should just go home.

Does God Exist?

2009-05-04T05:46:10.059Z

Can the existence of God be scientifically proved? Where did the first LIFE come from? Can we know
whether God possesses MIND power?
LET'S FACE this question! Is it rational to believe in God? Is God merely a myth -- an invention of an
ignorant, superstitious past? Many, today assume this.
Questioned God's Existence
With me -- and I hope with the reader -- I wanted to KNOW! I wanted to be SURE! I questioned the existence
of God! Also I questioned the opposing doctrine of evolution. I did not seek to DISprove either. But
I did research and carefully examine the evidences on both sides of this two-sided question. For this question
is the very starting place for the acquisition of all knowledge. It is the FOUNDATION for UNDERSTANDING!
In my in-depth research into this question, starting [in the early part of the century], I emptied my mind of
prejudice. I sought the TRUTH, whether it was what I wanted to believe or not.
There are the two possibilities of origins -- special creation by a Creator, God, and the theory of evolution.
It has become intellectually fashionable to accept the evolutionary doctrine. It has won popular acceptance
in science and higher education. Even many professing Christian denominations have accepted it, if
only passively.
Yet, though in the minority, there still remain scientists, educators, and fundamentalist religious groups,
as well as those in Judaism, who cling to belief in the existence of God.
Don’t Assume -- KNOW!
Many of these, however, especially among the more or less religious individuals, have merely assumed
the existence of God. Why? Simply because they were taught it from childhood. It has been believed in
the circles in which they have lived or associated. But few of these have proved it!
Of course, on the other hand, perhaps a vast majority who accept evolution, at least passively, were simply
swept into that acceptance in college or university. It has become the scholarly "IN" thing. The opposite
belief, special creation, has not been taught. They have probably not examined it. Too frequently proponents
utilize the psychological ploy that it is a badge of scholarly status to accept evolution, and a
stamp of ignorance or intellectual inferiority to doubt the hypothesis.
All of which goes to show that people in general believe what they do, simply because they have been
taught it or because it has been accepted in their particular social environment. People want to belong!
They go along with their particular group. In general, they believe what they have taken carelessly for
granted -- without examination or proof!
Of course I know well, too, that people generally believe only what they are willing TO ACCEPT. In
most instances people feel no compulsion to refuse what is accepted in their social or geographical environment.
As one philosopher said, most dyed-in-the-wool evolutionists accept the theory because of their
reluctance or unwillingness to believe in God.
As the book professing to be the Word of God says: "The carnal mind is enmity [hostile] against God: it is
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7). All the facts, positive evidence, rational
reasonings and proofs in the world will never induce such a one to accept that against which he is
prejudiced. For prejudice is a barrier to the entrance of truth into any mind.
I Found PROOF!
I was forced, on examination of the facts, to realize there is no proof for the theory of evolution. It is
purely a theory -- a belief -- a faith, not based on proof. Though its zealous proponents push it onto the
world as if it were proven fact!
I found PROOF of the existence of the Creator, God. I also found PROOF that the book called the Holy
Bible is, in fact, the very inspired revelation from that all-intelligent, all-knowing God of the vital, necessary,
basic knowledge and instruction, without which man is unable to solve his problems, prevent his
evils, or live in PEACE, happiness, universal prosperity and abundant well-being here on earth. Man is
the crowning product of his Maker. The Bible is our Maker's INSTRUCTION MANUAL He sent along
with His product.
Which God?
An atheist wrote me: "We have the history of many religions, and many gods. Which one of these gods do
you claim for your God -- and how do you know that He exists?"
That's a fair question. It deserves an answer!
Yes, my friends, I have a God.
The gods of some nations have been carved by men's hands out of wood, stone, or other existing material.
The gods of some religions and individuals have been carved out of human imaginations and faulty human
reasonings. Some have worshipped the sun or other inanimate objects of nature. All these gods are
merely the created - most of them formed and fashioned by man, therefore inferior to man.
But He who did the creating -- He who brought everything that exists into existence, including all else
falsely called God -- He who created all matter, force and energy, who created all natural laws and set
them in motion, who created LIFE and endowed some of it with intelligence -- He is GOD! He is superior
to all else that is called "God." He, alone, is GOD.
Creation is the proof of God!
But during the past two centuries especially, there has developed among God-rejecting men in the Occidental
world the mental disease of theophobia. Two hundred years ago it appeared under the popular
catch-phrases "deism" and "rationalism." Then it masqueraded itself under the appealing name "higher
criticism." This pseudo-scholarship employed, as it advanced, such attractive titles as "progress," "development,"
and "evolution." It has appealed to the intellectual vanity of a world groping in spiritual darkness
in an era of widespread diffusion of knowledge. Creation Without a Creator? The theory of evolution
provided the atheist an explanation of a creation without a Creator.
But this misguided "rationalism" failed utterly to account for the origins of things and of life; and today
the more candid among geologists and biologists confess that they do not know how life could have
evolved from inanimate matter, through the simple life forms to the complex, interdependent species we
see about us, finally to man. Lamarck's theory of "use and disuse," Darwin's "natural selection," and other
theories have now fallen by the wayside, and "mutations" explain only the presence of varieties less fit to
survive. Amazing New Knowledge of Science Now suppose we confine ourselves to facts!
What, then, has science actually determined?
Discovery and study of radioactivity during the past century has proved that there has been no past eternity
of matter! Radioactivity is described as a process of disintegration. The atomic age is opening up new
fields to explore. Soon after Madame Curie discovered the element radium, in 1898, it was discovered
that radium, and the other radioactive elements as we know now, are continually giving off radiations.
Has Matter Always Existed? So notice carefully what this now disclosed FACT of science means:
Uranium is a radioactive element heavier than radium. It has an atomic weight of 238.5. In decomposing,
it gives off a helium atom, weight 4, repeated three times, and then the substance left is radium, atomic
weight about 226.4. Radium, then, is simply the end product of uranium after it has lost three helium atoms.
Then the disintegration continues in radium. And the final product of this process of radioactive disintegration
is the element lead! Now of course this process requires great periods of time. The calculated
half-life of radium is 1590 years - uranium much longer.
I have seen it myself, in the darkroom of an X-ray laboratory. A tiny portion of radium was placed on a
mirror at the far end of a hollow tube, and I looked into this tube through a magnifying glass at the other
end. Under this magnification what I saw appeared as a large, vast, dark sky, with thousands of shooting
stars falling toward me from all directions. Actually what I saw were the emanations of tiny particles being
emitted by the radium, greatly magnified.
We know, therefore, that there has been no past eternity of matter! When Matter Did Not Exist The radioactive
elements in existence today have not yet been in existence long enough to have run their course,
and disintegrated into lead. To have ALWAYS existed, without any definite time of starting in the past,
this "life" period of radioactive elements long ago would have run its course. All radioactive elements
would have long ago disintegrated into lead. Since these elements exist only for a definite span of years,
and all the uranium, radium, thorium and other radioactive elements in the world today have not yet existed
that many years, there was a time, prior to the duration of this span in the past, when these elements
DID NOT EXIST!
Here we have definite scientific proof that MAT'TER HAS NOT ALWAYS EXISTED. Here we have
definite specific elements which once, in the long ago, did not yet exist. Then there came a time, later,
when these elements CAME INTO EXISTENCE. Evolution usually postulates that things come about
GRADUALLY, through the slow-moving natural processes of the present. Try to imagine, if you can,
something coming into existence out of nothing GRADUALLY! Can your mind entertain the idea?
I think not. No, I think if you are rational you will have to accept the fact of a special and necessarily instantaneous
CREATION. And SOME POWER or SOME ONE had of necessity to do the creating. There
is a cause for every effect. And in accepting that inevitable FACT, proved by the findings of science, of
the existence of that GREAT FIRST CAUSE, YOU HAVE ACCEPTED THE FACT of the existence and
preexistence of the Creator -- GOD! Where Did LIFE Come From? But how about the presence of life?
How did life get here? Science has learned some things about that, too.
The wisest of the ancients did not know what science makes available today. Thus it is demonstrated today
that LIFE COMES ONLY FROM LIFE, and that each kind reproduces only after its kind (Genesis
1:25).
The works of Tyndall and Louis Pasteur, in the field of bacteria and protozoa, finally demonstrated scientifically
once and for all in these more minute fields what Redi first demonstrated with larger organisms.
All the advances of recent medical and surgical science in the treatment and prevention of germ diseases
are based upon this great truth of the law of Biogenesis -that LIFE can come only from preexisting LIFE.
No fact of science stands more conclusively proved today. Life CANNOT come from dead matter. There
is not one shred of truth from science to account for the presence of life upon the earth by any means
other than a special creation by the great original first Cause -- God -- Who is life and the fountain source
of all life! It is now absolutely certain, according to all that can be KNOWN from science -- according to
all that is rational -- that it required A REAL CREATION to produce life from the not-living -- organic
from inorganic matter. Life Only FROM Life One cannot rationally deny the existence of my GOD,
unless he can account for the origin of LIFE without a Creator who, Himself, is Life! The Creator, therefore,
begins to be revealed, by science and by reason, as a LIVING God -- a God in whom is LIFE, and
who alone has imparted life to all that have it!
I could go further, and show you that what science has discovered about energy and its origin and the laws
of conservation of energy, also proves conclusively that "the works were finished from the foundation of
the world" (Hebrews 4:3), that the material creation is a completed work, which is not now going on!
Next, then, let's examine whether the great FIRST CAUSE is a Being of intelligence, or merely some
blind, dumb, unintelligent FORCE. Is Anything Superior to Your Mind? Look about you. You admit that
the transmission of knowledge to your mind is limited to the channels of your five senses.
So now I ask you, do you know of anything that is superior to your mind?
Look at the planets coursing through the sky. Behold, in all its splendor, the entire cosmic universe, with
its suns, its nebulae and galaxies. Yes, they are inanimate. They have no mind, no intelligence. They cannot
do what you can do - think, reason, plan, and carry out plans according to private volition and will.
The human mind can know, think, reason, plan, and carry out its plans to execution. It can invent and
produce instruments by which it may acquire knowledge of the vast universe, or of the minutest particle.
By developing rockets and computers, man is able to send astronauts to the moon and bring them back
alive. He can cause rivers to run backward, turn the forces of nature to serving human needs. And now he
has learned how to release the energy of the atom, and utilize a power so vast that man is able at last to
annihilate all life from the earth.
But there remains one thing no man ever has been able to do. He cannot build, make, produce, or create
anything that is superior to himself!
A man can take existing materials and out of them build a house. An automobile is almost a living thing,
but the intelligence and powers required to invent and produce it are superior to the thing produced. The
Supreme Intelligence To suggest to you that anything you could invent, make, build, or bring into being
could be superior in intelligence and ability to you and your mind would certainly insult your intelligence!
Now let me ask you candidly, do you honestly believe that any power or force of less intelligence than
your mind produced YOU?
If you do not believe in my God, then you have only the alternative of believing that something less than
your intelligence produced YOU -- that dumb, purposeless UNINTELLIGENCE brought into being your
intelligence! The only rational possibility is to acknowledge that the very presence of the human mind is
PROOF that the great First Cause is also the SUPREME INTELLIGENCE, infinitely superior to the abilities
of mortal man! Suppose You Were Creator? Suppose that you could add to your powers of reasoning,
planning, designing, the actual CREATIVE power, so that you could project your will anywhere to produce
and bring into being whatever your mind should plan and desire. Then, suppose you undertook the
designing, creating, fashioning, shaping, and setting in motion a limitless cosmic universe -- with planets
and suns and nebulae and galaxies in all their splendor, each of these vast units being of such intricate and
complex construction as the existing universe. On one of these planets you would plan and produce all the
forms of life that exist on this planet -- and I do not mean reproduce, for there would be no present universe
to copy. There would be worlds within a world, down to the minutest infinitesimal particles of matter
we cannot even see by the aid of the most powerful microscopes.
Do you think your mind would be equal to the task?
Just stop and think.
Is it rational, then, to believe that any power or force lacking even human intelligence could have planned,
designed, created, formed, fashioned, shaped, put together and set in motion the awesome universe we
behold?
The First Great Cause who created matter; then, stands revealed as the SUPREME INTELLIGENCE and
ARCHITECT OF THE UNIVERSE! The Miracle of Living Food But again I say, look about you! Here
are human beings on this earth, composed mainly of certain, specific elements of matter - living, organic
matter. These elements of life must be supplied and replenished through food, water, and air.
No man with all his ingenuity and science and laboratory facilities CAN PRODUCE FOOD! That is, he
cannot take plain inorganic matter and turn it into the living substance we call food. But some Power,
Force, Intelligence, or Being did in some way, at some time, start the process going -- a process far too
wonderful for any man to devise or produce.
And so it is that out of the ground grows grass, and green leafy vegetables, and all other vegetables, and
vines, and trees yielding fruit - each with its seed in itself, each through this seed reproducing after its
kind -- and it is very good!
But when a marvelous little grain of wheat is planted in the ground, a plant develops and sprouts above
the ground, and in some manner too wonderful for any human mind to understand or imitate, the elements
drunk in through the roots from the ground are utilized by the life germ in the seed of wheat, and new
grains of wheat appear.
During this process, the inorganic iron and other elements dissolved in the ground, drunk into the roots
and carried up into the new grain of wheat, have been actually converted into organic matter which can be
assimilated as food.
And this same marvelous process takes place in the growth out of the ground of all grains, vegetables,
fruits and foods. When we eat animal meat we are merely consuming, secondhand, the vegetation which
the animal ate.
MAN, with all his vaunted science, his technical laboratory facilities, with all his inventive genius, lacks
the intelligence and the powers to produce a grain of wheat, or to convert inorganic matter into living
food. Then is it rational to say that forces or powers exist, of NO intelligence, which have been able to
produce this living miracle of food? Did not a far GREATER intelligence than man design, create, and
supply man with all of this? Man's Intelligence Versus God's But now let's COMPARE the wisdom and
intelligence of man with that of God who brought these marvels into being, and keeps them functioning.
The grain of wheat GOD causes to grow out of the ground is a perfect food. But, like other perfect gifts
from God, man fails to value the priceless perfection of the all-wise God, and, undertaking to improve on
God's handiwork, perverts, pollutes, and defiles it! Every bit of God's perfection man's hand has ever
touched, it would seem, he has besmirched, spoiled and polluted!
And the poor, defenseless grain of wheat is no exception! Into flour mills of human devising go the millions
of bushels of healthful wheat. Yes, the sugar refiners do the same thing to sugar; and nearly all foods
on the market for human consumption today have gone through man's factories and suffered from man's
processes until they have been devitalized, depleted of their health-giving requirements, and turned from
foods into slow-acting poisons! And these foodless foods with which man has tampered in lust for profits
have produced in human bodies a whole series of diseases of which our forefathers of a few generations
ago never heard! Result: Today human beings drop dead before their time with heart failure, others die
with cancer; the population suffers rheumatism, arthritis, diabetes, kidney diseases, anemia, colds, fevers,
pneumonia, and thousands of other diseases. We respond to the toothbrush and toothpaste ads and frantically
brush our teeth, but our teeth keep decaying and we lose them beginning at an early age because of
lack of calcium and fluorine in our diet.
Whose intelligence is higher -- that of the GOD who provided every perfect need for every living thing, or
that of greedy, gullible, God-rejecting humans who in the interest of bigger profits and more luxuries for
themselves have ROBBED the very foods God created and gave us, of their health and body-building
values? "There Was No Watchmaker" I needed an accurate watch with a very plain dial for timing broadcasts.
The only kind that filled the need was a railroad watch. I have one -- the very finest railroad watch
made, a 23-jewel watch.
But it does not keep perfect time. Once or twice a week I have to adjust it a second or two, if I want to be
sure it is accurate to the second. I set it by the master clock of my city, or any city, which is always found
at the Western Union. But even this clock does not keep perfect time. Once or twice a week it must be
adjusted a second or two by the master clock of the nation, by telegraph, from the Naval Observatory,
Washington, D.C. There at the Naval Observatory is the Master Clock of the U.S.A. But this great master
clock of the United States is not perfect, either. It, too, must be adjusted and corrected occasionally.
Yes, it is corrected by the MASTER CLOCK OF THE UNIVERSE -- up in the skies -- by astronomers!
Up there in the heavens is the great Master Clock that NEVER makes a mistake -- is always ON TIME --
never off a fraction of a second -- the heavenly bodies coursing through the skies!
Now you, sir -- my doubting friend! If I show you my fine precision 23-jewel railroad watch and tell you
that it was not made in a factory after all -- in fact, it was not designed, planned, put together, by any
watchmaker at all -- that it just sort of HAPPENED -- that the iron ores just brought themselves up out of
the ground, refined themselves, formed and shaped themselves into the delicate little cogs and wheels and
other pieces; the silicon just came of its own accord out of the earth and turned itself into the glass crystal;
the gold case just refined itself, shaped itself; the cogs and wheels and scores of little parts just assembled
themselves together in that case, wound themselves up, and started themselves to running and keeping
almost perfect time -- well, if I should try to tell you anything like that, you'd tell me I'm crazy or a fool,
would you not?
Certainly! You know that the presence of that watch is RATIONAL AND POSITIVE PROOF of the existence
of a watchmaker, or watchmakers, who thought it all out, planned it, formed it, shaped it, put it together,
and started it running. Master Clock of The Universe But then you, Mr. Skeptic -- you look up into
the great vast sky at the MASTER CLOCK of the universe, which never misses a second -- the perfect
watch by which we must constantly set all our imperfect man-made watches -- and you tell me, "That all
just HAPPENED! There was no Great Watchmaker! No Master MIND thought out and planned that vast
universe, brought it into being, set each star and planet in its own exact place, and started the myriad
heavenly bodies coursing through space, each in its prescribed orbit, in its orderly precision. No, it just
fashioned itself, put itself together, wound itself up, and started itself running. There was no Intelligence -
- no planning -- NO CREATION -- NO GOD!"
Do you say that to me?
If you can, I answer that I do not respect your intelligence. And the God I acknowledge replies to you,
"The FOOL hath said in his heart, There is no God!" (Psalm 14:1; 53:1.)
If you can look about you, and observe how intelligently PLANNED and executed is everything in nature,
and in plant and animal life - everything we see except the bungling, botching, polluting of God's beautiful
handiwork by the clumsy hand of God-ignoring-and-rejecting MAN -- and then say you doubt the existence
of an all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful Creator GOD, then I do not have much faith either in
your rational processes or your sincerity as a seeker of the TRUTH!

The Future Of War

2009-05-04T05:59:08.230Z

An excerpt from "Sex And War"

The new book by Malcom Potts and Thomas Hayden will be widely available December 1, and is currently available on Amazon. Hear more about the book from the authors in a Q&A with Wired.com.

TODAY’S MOST BRUTAL WARS are also the most primal. They are fought with machetes in West Africa, with fire and rape and fear in Darfur, and with suicide bombs and improvised explosive devices in Israel, Iraq, and elsewhere. But as horrifying as these conflicts are, they are not the greatest threat to our survival as a species. We humans are a frightening animal. Throughout our species’s existence, we have used each new technology we have developed to boost the destructive power of our ancient predisposition for killing members of our own species. From hands and teeth tearing at isolated individuals, to coordinated raids with clubs and bows and arrows, to pitched battles, prolonged sieges, and on into the age of firearms, the impulse has remained the same but as the efficiency of our weapons has increased, the consequences have grown ever more extreme.

KidshellsThe evidence of history is that no advance which can be applied to the killing of other human beings goes unused. As scientific knowledge continues to explode, it would be naïve, to expect any different. As if we needed any more reasons to confront the role of warfare in our lives, the present supply and future potential of WMDs should convince us that the time has come once and for all to bring our long, violent history of warring against each other to an end.

The nineteenth century was dominated by discoveries in chemistry, from dyes to dynamite. The twentieth century belonged to physics, from subatomic particles and black holes to nuclear weapons. The twenty-first century is set to see great advances in biological knowledge, from our growing understanding of the genome and stem cells to, it’s a shame to say, new and expanded forms of biological warfare. In the past, each iteration of the application of scientific discovery to warfare has produced more horrible and destructive weapons. Sometimes temporary restraint is exercised, as in the successful ban on poison gas in the Second World War, but such barriers burst easily, as the deliberate bombing of civilians in the same war attest. Human beings have always appropriated new ideas to build increasingly formidable weapons and there is no reason to think that competitive, creative impulse will disappear on its own. As weapons become ever more horrifying—and, with the rise of biological weapons, increasingly insidious—it is no longer enough just to limit the use of one killing technology or another. We need to limit the conditions that lead to war in the first place.

It has become almost a cliché to note that we live in an increasingly complex and interdependent society. But this point is crucially important as we consider the future of war. Our cities once were fortresses, the walled sanctums where our ancestors sought refuge from marauders. The firebombing of the Second World War revealed a new urban vulnerability, but even that insecurity is nothing by today’s standards. We live in giant cities, supplied with piped water and electricity, with trains in tunnels and cars on elevated roadways, with fiber optics under the pavement and air-conditioning plants for buildings with windows that cannot be opened. Our new urban centers have the vulnerability to terrorism and attack built right into them. Any modern city can be held hostage by a single Unabomber, brought to a halt by nineteen fanatical men, or devastated by any small raiding party drawing on modern scientific knowledge, from malicious computer programming to radioactive “dirty bombs” to infectious bacteriology. To understand the dangerous future of these WMDs, we’ll first take a quick look at their history.

Poison Gas

On April 22, 1915, near the Belgian town of Ypres, the German army mounted the first poison gas attack in history. Fritz Haber, who would later receive the Nobel Prize for his work producing nitrogen fertilizer, labored day and night to develop chlorine gas into a weapon and supervised its first release in person. The 168 tons of gas deployed that day ripped a four-mile gap of gasping, suffocating men in the British lines. (The German commanders—as is so often the case when new weapons are used—had insufficient resources to exploit their opportunity.) In a revealing example of the difference between the attitudes of men and women toward war, Haber’s wife Clara, who was also a chemist, begged her husband to stop his work on poison gas. After a dinner held to celebrate her husband’s appointment as a general, Frau Haber shot herself in the garden—and Haber left the funeral arrangements to others while he traveled to the Eastern front to supervise the first gas attack on the Russians. Unprepared, the Russians suffered 25,000 casualties. In one of the grimmer ironies in the history of dehumanizing others, while Haber was dismissed from the directorship of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut in Berlin in 1933 because he was a Jew (he later escaped Nazi Germany), his invention, Zyklon gas, was used in the gas chambers of Nazi concentration camps to kill other Jews.

Despite the obvious horrors of gas warfare, the British began their own chemical weapons research in 1916. They tested 150,000 compounds including dichlorethyl sulfide, which they rejected as insufficiently lethal. The Germans disagreed, and took up its development. On initial exposure, victims didn’t notice much except for an oily or “mustard” smell, and so the first men exposed to this “mustard gas” did not even don their gasmasks. Only after a few hours did exposed skin began to blister, as the vocal cords became raw and the lungs filled with liquid. Affected soldiers died or were rendered medically unfit for months, and often succumbed years or decades later to lung disease. At first the British were outraged at its use, but later they sent supplies of poison gas to their own troops in British India, for use against
Afghan tribesmen in the North-West Frontier.

By 1918, one-third of all shells being used in World War I were filled with poison gas. In all, 125,000 British soldiers were gassed, along with 70,000 Americans. Three weeks before the end of the war, the British shelled the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry with mustard gas. A young corporal named Adolf Hitler was blinded in the attack—and would later claim that the recovery of his sight was a supernatural sign he should become a politician and save “Germany.”

Nuclear Weapons

AtomiccloudBetween the ages of eleven and seventeen, I was lucky to attend the
Perse School in Cambridge, only a mile from the Cavendish Laboratory where much of the early work on atomic physics was conducted. Today, I teach at the University of California, Berkeley, an important site for early work on nuclear physics, and still the managing institution for Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, where the atomic bomb was developed. The knowledge to create the most destructive weapons in history was developed by clever men in pleasant surroundings, pushing the analytical power of their Stone Age brains to the limit. In that task, deep-seated human emotions and brilliant science clashed in complex ways.

The main motivating factor behind America’s Manhattan Project was fear—fear that Nazi Germany would develop the atomic bomb first. In the 1930s, a Hungarian theoretical physicist living in London, Leo Szilárd, foresaw that a nuclear chain reaction might be possible, and in December 1938, Otto Hahn in Germany conducted the crucial experiment confirming Szilárd’s hypothesis. As a young German officer, Hahn had helped release the first chlorine gas at Ypres in 1915, but when the possibility of a nuclear weapon arose he had serious reservations, saying, “if my work should lead to a nuclear weapon I would kill myself.” (Lise Meitner, another physicist, was the first to understand the potential of nuclear fission. She worked with Hahn in Berlin before being expelled from Germany because she was Jewish, and she refused any part in the development of the American bomb.) But while virtually every physicist who saw the potential for nuclear weapons recoiled in horror, scientific genies which can be weaponized are always difficult to keep in their bottles, and impossible during wartime. By the time Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in March of 1939, science had advanced to the point that the best physicists in both Europe and America could see how an atomic bomb was scientifically possible. Soon, many would come to consider it necessary as well.

A German effort to build the bomb was launched, and headed by Werner Heisenberg, famous for his “uncertainty principle” of quantum physics. Germany failed to make an atomic bomb by a wide margin, and there is some evidence, controversial to be sure, that Heisenberg and other German physicists had intentionally dragged their heels. Whether true or not, it hardly mattered—Szilárd was convinced the Nazis were making progress and that only the Americans could beat them to the nuclear finish line. He drafted a warning letter, and together with Albert Einstein sent it to President Roosevelt. The Manhattan Project soon followed.

The U.S. tested its first atomic weapon in the New Mexico desert at 2:41 A.M. on May 7, 1945—just as the Allies were accepting Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender. But the war with Japan raged on, and the new U.S. President, Harry Truman, struggled with the power he now controlled. “Even if the Japs are savages, ruthless, merciless and fanatic, we as the leader of the world…cannot drop this terrible bomb on the old capital [Kyoto],” he confided to his diary. “The target will be a purely military one and we will issue a warning statement asking the Japs to surrender.” In fact, Japan was on the verge of surrender and it might well have capitulated had they been told the Emperor could remain on his throne. The Allies, however, insisted on unconditional surrender, and the Japanese refused. At 8:16 A.M. on August 6, a uranium-235 device called Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima; a plutonium bomb, “Fat Man,” was dropped on Nagasaki two days later. On
September 2, 1945, the Japanese formally surrendered. The genie was out of the bottle.

Within months of the end of the war, Edward Teller, a Hungarian who was part of the team that had developed the U.S. bomb, was working on the hydrogen bomb, an even more powerful weapon. In the Soviet Union, Stalin had authorized work on an atomic bomb as early as 1942, and the Russians were helped initially by lease-lend shipments of uranium and other material from the U.S., and by Manhattan Project secrets leaked by the left-wing physicist Klaus Fuchs. His betrayal is said to have advanced the Soviet work by perhaps eighteen months, and captured German scientists added an extra boost after the war. Russia exploded her first atomic bomb just four years after the Americans. The British had their atomic bomb by 1953, the French by 1960, and the Chinese in 1964. Israel has never confirmed its membership, but is thought to have joined the nuclear club by the late 1970s.

Germ Warfare

The Shoshone Indians of Nevada, before battle, killed a sheep, drained its blood into a length of intestine, buried the draught in the ground to ferment, and then smeared their war arrows with the microbial brew. This would have guaranteed severe infection and probably death following even a superficial arrow wound. A 3,400-year-old clay tablet found in modern Turkey carries a cuneiform inscription with the intriguing phrase, “The country that finds them shall take over this evil pestilence.” Molecular biologist Siro Trevisanato from Ontario, Canada, suggests that this may be a reference to a disease called tularemia which infects sheep, donkeys, rabbits, and human beings, and that it is the first instance of biological warfare in recorded history. Tularemia is a highly infectious disease leading to a painful death from fever, skin ulcers, and pneumonia. It was the cause of serious epidemics in early civilizations stretching from present-day Cyprus to Iraq, and the historical record suggests that infected sheep and donkeys were driven into enemy lines in order to spread infection. During the French and Indian Wars (1754–1763), the British very likely gave hostile Indian tribes blankets infected with smallpox, and certainly considered the idea. Once you have dehumanized your enemy, the evidence is that it matters little which way you kill him. But biological weapons represent a particularly insidious and dangerous form of WMDs. They may lack the immediate gruesome effects of chemical weapons or the sheer destructive power of the atomic bomb. But they are inherently stealthy, potentially lethal on a global scale, and when living infectious organisms are involved, all but uncontrollable.

Both Japan and the U.S. worked on biological weapons during World War II, and the Japanese used anthrax and plague bacteria against the chinese. U.S. research continued after the war until 1969, when President Richard Nixon renounced “the use of lethal biological agents and weapons, and other methods of biological warfare.” The U.S.
unilaterally destroyed its stockpiled biological weapons, a bold step which led to the 1972 Biological Weapons convention. But although the convention was ratified by 140 nations, it lacked policing capacity and within one year of its passage, the Soviet Union began the largest biological weapons program in history. Vladimir Pasechnick, who would defect to the U.S. in 1994, reported overseeing 400 research scientists working on the program in Leningrad, with another 6,000 professionals throughout the country involved in the manufacture of huge quantities of anthrax and smallpox. Iraq also ignored the 1972 convention and in 1990, just before the First Gulf War, a factory south of Baghdad manufactured 5,400 liters of botulinum toxin. The coalition forces had insufficient vaccines to protect their soldiers, and U.S. Secretary of State James Baker used diplomatic channels to let Saddam Hussein know that the U.S. would launch a nuclear response if attacked with biological weapons. By the time of the Second Gulf War, Hussein’s biological weapon program had disintegrated.

As a physician, I must say that I find germ warfare to be particularly loathsome. There are three possible levels on which it could be waged, each more distressing that the one before. First, a bacterium such as anthrax, which is very stable, could be sprayed or spread around a community. Anyone who inhaled it would come down with a non-specific fever and fatigue, which looks like the onset of flu but, left untreated, leads to fatal pneumonia. An anthrax victim, however, could not infect another person. Second, an infectious agent, such as smallpox, could be used to start an epidemic. Third, a new and terrible disease could be genetically engineered that not only infects, but also avoids detection and resists treatment with our current arsenal of vaccines and antibiotics. This final scenario is the most chilling of all.

If anything qualifies as a miracle of modern medicine, it is the World Health Organization’s use of vaccination to eradicate smallpox in the 1960s and 1970s. The last case of this ancient killer of millions was identified in October 1977 in Somalia. Yet the very fact of our medical triumph over smallpox makes it a particularly devastating weapon. The virus is highly infectious; causes severe, painful disease with a high rate of mortality; and unlike HIV, for example, is quite robust, and can persist in the environment for months or years. Unlike most viral diseases, it is possible to halt smallpox infection by vaccination after exposure. However, the smallpox vaccination must be given within the first forty-eight hours after exposure, and large-scale smallpox vaccination was stopped thirty years ago. A smallpox-based attack now could devastate a large population. But even if an outbreak were quickly contained, it would bring a nation to a halt and be exceedingly frightening and painful.

All smallpox samples were supposed to be destroyed following eradication, with the exception of two batches. One is stored at the U.S. Centers for Disease control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, and the other at the Russian State Research Institute of Virology and Biotechnology outside Novosibirsk, Siberia. It is possible, however, that clandestine stocks were kept by Russia, Iraq, Israel, or some other countries, and shortly after 9/11, the World Health Organization decided to postpone the destruction of the final Russian and U.S. samples in case they are needed to provide scientific information to counter a bioterrorism attack in the future.

Many other pox viruses and other infectious agents provided by nature could potentially be used as weapons. But the Frankenstein-like creation of novel germs is perhaps an even greater fear. A lethal virus might be assembled accidentally, as happened in Australia in 2000 when an experiment to sterilize rodent pests turned sour. The unintentionally lethal virus killed all the experimental animals, despite attempts at vaccination. And the deliberate quest to make germ warfare more effective by genetically modifying existing bacteria and viruses has already begun. Sergei Popov, a Russian molecular biologist who worked in the Soviet biological weapons program, developed a microbe with the potential to cause a slow death from multiple sclerosis. “We never doubted,” he said after defecting to Britain in 1992, “that we did the right thing. We tried to defend our country.” His words echo those spoken by Werner Heisenberg and other German nuclear scientists after the Second World War almost exactly.

Biological agents need not kill to be effective terror weapons. In the case of rodent pest control, thought has been given to using a modified virus that would cause infected female animals to make antibodies against the coat surrounding their own eggs. As a pest control strategy, it would produce a generation of sterile rats. If a similar virus were developed against human beings, it might be years before a slowly emerging epidemic of infertility was even recognized as a deliberate attack. As one scientist has remarked, “the main thing that stands between the human species and the creation of a supervirus is a sense of responsibility among individual biologists.” With an ever-growing population of scientists with the skill to manipulate the genes of bacteria and viruses, “individual responsibility” may prove a gossamer defense indeed.

Manufacturing Destruction

The nuclear arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union in many ways defined the mid-twentieth century. But in some ways we can learn even more from the nuclear confrontation that has played out on the Indian subcontinent. In 1948, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, despite being an advocate of non-aggression and ending atomic tests, admitted that, if threatened, “no pious statements will stop the nation from using it that way.” Nehru was right and on May 11, 1974, India detonated a plutonium bomb the size of the Hiroshima weapon. As the Indian threat increased, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, then Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, declared that his country would sacrifice everything to make an atomic bomb, “even if we have to eat grass or leaves or to remain hungry.” Many people in that impoverished nation did in fact remain hungry as Pakistan poured its meager resources into a weapons program, which finally resulted in a series of nuclear tests in March 1998.

The disturbing lesson is that the technical and economic barriers to WMD acquisition are steadily dropping. The Manhattan project cost two trillion dollars in the money of the time, and involved an industrial effort as large as the whole of the U.S. automobile industry. Pakistan managed the same feat as an unstable third-world country with a fraction of the resources. If Iran and North Korea soon join the nuclear club, it will be in part thanks to nuclear secrets purchased from A. Q. Khan, the “father” of the Pakistani bomb. Perhaps most disturbing of all, there are thousands of pounds of high-grade nuclear material still in the former Soviet Union, left over from the cold War. Some is unaccounted for, and much of the rest is poorly secured, vulnerable to purchase or theft by terror groups.

In much the same way, Germany’s World War I chemical weapons were produced by the most advanced chemical industry in the world at the time. The sarin gas released into the Tokyo subway by the Aum religious sect in 1995, which killed seven people and made 2,000 ill, was made by a single, poorly qualified biochemist, Seichi Endo. Also in 1995, an
American survivalist purchased plague bacteria on the open market from the America Type culture collection for just $300. Whether used by nations against their enemies, or by small bands of terrorists bent on causing ever greater fear, there is simply too little we can do to stop WMDs and their effects once they have been constructed. Our best hope of security is to encourage and enforce control, while also redoubling our efforts to understand and counteract the conditions that might lead to their use in the first place.

The Battle for Resources

We have already stated several times that all team aggression, all raiding, and all wars are ultimately about resources, even if the combatants aren’t consciously aware of it. All life, in fact, at its most fundamental level is about competition for resources. Evolution has been driven by this competition for billions of years, and today’s animals, plants, bacteria, protozoa, and fungi all exist because they competed successfully with their rivals in the past. If we are to have any chance of avoiding the wars of tomorrow, as the destructive power of today’s weapons tells us we must, then we have to address this most basic of biological problems: The fact that as the population of any species grows, the pressure on its natural resources increases and competition becomes more severe.

Biology has invented a million ways for plants and animals to compete with each other. A tree may compete for light by growing taller; early mammals competed with dinosaurs by only coming out at night; humans and chimpanzees—especially the males—compete for food, space, and reproductive opportunities by fighting with each other. Human wars may come wrapped in a veneer of religion or political philosophy, but the battle for resources is usually just below the surface. When Pope Urban II exhorted the nobles of Europe to join the First Crusade, he contrasted the lands where they lived, which had “scarcely enough food for their cultivators,” with Palestine, where the crusaders would be able to appropriate land from the Infidels. In World War II, the need for land and resources was expressed as Hitler’s concept of lebensraum, or “living space.” “The aim [of] the efforts and sacrifices of the German people in this war,” he wrote, “must be to win territory in the East for the German people.” The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor because they knew they had to destroy the American Pacific fleet if they were to access the Indonesian oil they needed to supply their industries. As we saw earlier, while rapid population growth and massive unemployment in some settings, such as the Gaza Strip, do not cause wars or terrorist attacks by themselves, they certainly make them more likely.

Showmeyourwarfare
The predisposition for team aggression may be an inherent part of chimpanzee and human makeup, but the degree of competition for resources varies with the situation. For example, it seems that team aggression among chimpanzees is less common in the congo, where there are more forest resources, than in Tanzania, where human encroachment has driven the animals into a limited area of forest. The human migrants who crossed the Bering Strait into the Americas about 15,000 years ago found a continent filled with large, easy-to-hunt mammals, and among their limited human skeletal remains we find no evidence of violence. But by about 5000 B.C., as numbers and competition increased, some human skeletons from hunter-gatherer societies in North America show evidence of scalping, or have arrowheads embedded in them. A thousand years ago, in the American Southwest, the Anasazi and Fremont peoples were foragers who also grew maize. Some built elaborate cliff dwellings. The study of tree rings demonstrates that the area was subject to some decade-long droughts, and during these times the region seems to have been beset by raids and warfare. The population retreated to high pinnacles on the edges of deep canyons. They hid small caches of grain in hard to reach places and positioned boulders to roll down on enemy clans. Human skeletons show signs of malnutrition, decapitation, and cut marks on long-bones suggesting cannibalism.

Some Rousseauean anthropologists protest that reports of cannibalism represent a racist desire to denigrate other cultures, but the scientific evidence suggests otherwise. Excavating an Anasazi site in the American Southwest dating from 1150 a.d., Brian Billman of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found cooking vessels and the butchered remains of four adults and an adolescent. Sensitive immunological tests revealed evidence of human muscle protein in the pots; even more convincing, the same tests found evidence of human meat in preserved human feces found at the site. When food is scarce, competition becomes increasingly intense and cannibalism, like team aggression, aids survival.

Critics have argued that the archaeological evidence for endemic violence in drought-ridden areas is too scattered and circumstantial to draw strong conclusions. A recent study of environment and warfare in contemporary Africa helps put that criticism to rest. Edward Miguel of the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues Shanker
Satyanath and Ernest Sergenti of New York University compared rainfall levels and incidents of civil conflict across the African continent, and found that as one increased, the other declined, with a statistical certainty of 95 percent. Interestingly, the effect was found across many different cultures and irrespective of whether the country was well or poorly governed.

Competition for resources has led to violence everywhere we look.
When Polynesian seafarers reached Easter Island about 1,300 to 1,700 years ago, they landed on a forested island full of flightless birds. By about 500 years ago, the trees had been cut down, the animals had all been eaten, and the clans, who identified themselves with the curious stone statues that still dot the island, fell to fighting each other. The population plummeted from an estimated 20,000 to just 2,000 by the time Europeans arrived in the eighteenth century. Here too we find archeological evidence of cannibalism, which lives on in the oral tradition of the islanders. A local insult used on Easter Island even today is, “The flesh of your mother sticks between my teeth.”

The thought that rapid population growth could increase conflict is hardly new, and certainly Thomas Malthus accepted this relationship in his 1798 Essay on the Principle of Population. As with so many efforts to interpret human behavior, however, the link between resource depletion and conflict has been obscured by extreme arguments. As
Shridath Ramphal and Steven Sinding, then of the UN commission on Global Governance and the Rockefeller Foundation, write, “there has been considerably more heat than light in the international dialogue” and efforts have been made that “suit a political, as opposed to a scientific interest.” Those looking at the same landscape of facts but through different lenses end up sparring instead of seeking synthesis. Nancy Peluso and Michael Watts, colleagues of ours at Berkeley, castigate writers such as Robert Kaplan, author of The Coming Anarchy: How Scarcity, Crime, Overpopulation, and Disease Are Rapidly Destroying the Social Fabric of Our Planet, for making too direct a link between resource scarcity and conflict. They point out, citing Karl Marx (who did in fact get a few things right), that economic patterns also help determine who controls and who has access to resources. No doubt some conflicts could be avoided by a more equitable distribution of resources; there is nothing contradictory in arguing for greater social and economic equality while also recognizing that high birth rates can overwhelm the ability of a finite region to sustain its human population regardless of such equality.

John May, the World Bank’s demographer for Africa, has drawn attention to the demographic pressure that had built up in Rwanda by the time of the 1994 genocide. The population of Rwanda was two million people in 1950, and on average each woman had almost 8 children. By 1994, average family size had fallen slightly to 6.2, but the population had quadrupled to almost eight million, resulting in a population density of 292 people per square kilometer, the highest in all of Africa. James Fairhead, an anthropologist from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, adds an economic dimension to the analysis. Preceding the Rwanda genocide, Fairhead points out, agricultural land prices had reached an astronomical $4,000 per hectare in a country where many people lived on less than $500 a year. “Land,” Fairhead concludes, “is worth fighting for and defending.” Tragically, the fighting which took place in 1994 left between 500,000 and one million dead. It was cast as an ethnic conflict, and senseless. Once its roots in resource competition are laid bare, however, the violent extermination of an identifiable outgroup takes on the all-too familiar logic of team aggression.

Can all conflict be reduced beyond even team aggression and resource competition, down to the single factor of population growth? It’s not quite that simple, but a deeper investigation of the role of population increase shows quite clearly that growth rate and population demographics function as significant triggers for raiding, wars, and even terrorism. If we hope to reduce the number and severity of these violent incidents in our world, this is a relationship we need to understand. Peter Turchin of the University of Connecticut and his Russian colleague Andrey Korotayev provide important quantitative insight into the dynamic connections between population growth and conflict. In a careful study of English, Chinese, and Roman history, they showed a statistical correlation between an increase in population density and warfare, although not surprisingly the impact of population growth was not immediate but took some time to develop. It is not the infant playing at the hearth but the hungry landless peasant twenty years later who causes the conflict. Adjusting for this and other variables (such as the fact that wars themselves tend to reduce population), and using robust data on population growth from church records in England along with historical data on conflict, Turchin and Korotayev found that intervals of relative peace and rapid population growth were followed by periods of conflict and slower population growth. Their study suggests that population growth accounts for a powerful 80–90 percent* of the variation between periods of war and peace. Even if the influence of population is substantially less than that, it remains outstandingly important. But here is the crucial point: Rapid population growth is not just an important cause of violent conflicts. In the contemporary world, population growth is a cause that can be contained by purely voluntary means.

In the past fifty years the world has accommodated rapid population growth tolerably well, although as rising oil and food prices suggest, this may not be true in the future. The combination of the industrial revolution and science-based technology increased global wealth at an astonishing rate. We have been a little like those first people to cross into North America, or the Polynesians who first landed at Easter Island, in more ways than one, however. Presented with vast new supplies of food, energy, building materials, and luxury goods our forbears could never have imagined, we have gorged ourselves on consumption, and we have driven.

Our global population from just one billion people in 1800 to six billion in 2000. We live in a globalized world now, and worldwide population is expected to increase to over eight billion by 2030. The evidence of that increase is now all around us, in our polluted environment, our warming climate, our disappearing rainforests, and our increasingly degraded farmland: We are, as a species, in the process of proving Malthus’s proposition that population will always outstrip resources.

Has the age of rapid resource expansion really come to an end? Human ingenuity continues as unchecked as our population growth, and we will no doubt find ways to squeeze more food, water, and energy out of the existing supplies. But there are natural limits on how far efficiency and invention can take us. Thomas Homer-Dixon, Director of Peace and conflict Studies at the University of Toronto, and Ambassador Richard
Benedick, who was the chief U.S. negotiator for the 1987 Montreal Protocol on atmospheric ozone levels, argue that resource wars will become increasingly common in many parts of the world in the twenty-first century.* Water, for example, is becoming a key constraint on development and quality of life in many places. Thanks to dwindling supplies and burgeoning populations, the Middle East and much of North Africa now have one-third as much water per capita as in 1960. Israel has already exploited 95 percent of the available water supply in the country, and uses it efficiently; there is no new supply to tap. In the Gaza Strip, seawater is contaminating groundwater supplies as fresh water is pumped out to supply the growing population.

Egypt has depended on the Nile for irrigation, drinking water, and flushing its waste for thousands of years. But even that vast stream of water is now reaching its limits. Martha and I have watched millions of gallons of clear water pour over the Blue Nile falls near Bahir Dar in Ethiopia, and we have sat beside the origin of the White Nile at Jinja on Lake Victoria in Uganda. The two branches join at Khartoum in the middle of the Sudanese desert to make a vast, life-giving flow that has sustained forests, wildlife, and human populations since time immemorial. But by the time the Nile reaches the Mediterranean Sea, it is a sadly depleted shadow of its former self. In the year 2000, there were 170 million people in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt, all dependent on the waters of the Nile. There is significant demand for family planning in these countries, but for cultural and political reasons, that demand remains largely unmet. The populations of these three countries will continue to expand rapidly from 190 million today to a UN-estimated 337
million people by 2050. Population will more than double, but there will be no new water supply—all 337 million will be dependent on a source that is already under strain. In a region with a volatile mix of cultures, religions, and ethnicities, the added stress of severe water shortages may well be the spark that sets the team aggression impulse ablaze on a vast and horrifying scale.

And yet our consumption continues to increase. In recent decades, a billion new consumers have arisen in China, India, South East Asia, India, Brazil, Mexico, and parts of the former Soviet bloc. When the incomes of these newly affluent people are adjusted to take into account local purchasing power, their potential to buy better quality food, more consumer goods, and more automobiles will equal that of the U.S. While we should welcome the improved living standards and decreased poverty in many parts of the world, finite resources also make it essential that everything possible is done in the West and among the newly affluent to prevent runaway population growth. Norman Myers of Oxford University has shown that if the newly wealthy Chinese were to eat fish at the Japanese per capita rate, they would empty the seas, and if they used cars at the U.S. rate, they alone would consume today’s total global output of oil. In fifteen years, Martha and I have seen Beijing’s and Shanghai’s roads go from two-lane streets filled with bicycles to six-lane super-highways bursting with cars. The price of oil around the world continues to rise with the increased demand, and it is not going to fall to the low levels that Americans expected almost as a natural right just a decade or two ago. As competition for oil and other resources increases, will nations solve their differences through diplomacy, or through war?

Optimists point out that some countries, such as the Netherlands, are densely populated but still maintain a high standard of living. The implication is that good government and modern technology can help prevent the worst problems of expanding populations. But such arguments overlook the fact that we all need space to grow the food we need, to collect the water we use, and to absorb the pollution we create. Calculated realistically, the Netherlands has an ecological footprint fourteen times its area on the map, because it imports food for people and fodder for cattle, consumes drinking water that fell as rain in
Switzerland, and pumps carbon dioxide from its power stations into the global atmosphere.

For billions of years, evolution has been driven by competition caused by the simple fact that, left unchecked, all living things can reproduce faster than their environment can sustain. Our population growth today is largely unchecked by hunger, disease, or predators, and it is highly likely that our numbers and industrial demands have already exceeded the environment’s capacity to support them. Mathias Wackernagel in California, Norman Myers in England, and others calculate that we may have exceeded Earth’s carrying capacity as long ago as 1975. According to these calculations, we already need a planet 20 percent larger than the one we have. Such estimates are difficult to make and open to criticism. But it doesn’t take much more than an open set of eyes to realize that current human population growth and economic expansion are going to be impossible to sustain in the long term. competition for resources is about to increase markedly.

Lessons

Human beings are animated by curiosity. This same impulse to investigate our surroundings which today drives the scientific enterprise originally adapted our ancestors to a harsh, competitive environment. But unfortunately, the mixture of curiosity, the tendency to overreact when threatened, and unquestioning loyalty to our ingroup has become a lethal combination in today’s world. We can expand the envelope of empathy to include greater numbers of people, but in times of war, or perceived threats to our safety, it too often collapses again.

Power, patriotism, and curiosity can drive even the most intelligent and informed men—and it is virtually always men—to turn new scientific discoveries into weapons of mass destruction. The witness of history seems to be that the predisposition to fight and to defend ourselves against attack is so powerful that human beings, once they perceive themselves to be in a life or death struggle of any kind, will always justify research and development of new weapons, however horrendous their effects. It is sobering to note how many winners of Nobel Prizes for science contributed directly or indirectly to the development of weapons of mass destruction—and how many achievements honored with a Nobel Peace Prize fell apart soon after they were awarded. If the Nobel Prize for physics is awarded for accomplishment, the Peace Prize seems very often to reward only effort. But this does not mean that true peace is impossible— so long as we understand the biology of war.

We live in very different evolutionary times than any of our ancestors. After 3.5 billion years of competition, life on Earth has reached its carrying capacity. More competition at this point means fighting harder over a constantly dwindling pool of available resources. As we seek ways to solve our environmental crises, address the warming climate, and combat emerging diseases and global poverty, our very survival as a species requires finding more ways to cooperate rather than compete. And thanks especially to WMDs, the survival of our species now also means bringing an end to war as we know it. It is time to leave our history of team aggression behind.

These are daunting challenges, to say the least. Each will require the commitment and individual efforts of literally billions of our fellow humans, as well as many careful, specific programs put into effect by entire populations. But there is one action that we must take, individually and as a world, if any of the others are to be successful. It directly contradicts some of our deepest evolutionary programming, but if we are to survive as a species, we must stabilize or even reduce population size. As we’ll see in the coming chapter, to a very large extent that means recognizing that the natural tendencies of men are not consistent with the survival and well-being of their sexual partners, their children, and future generations to come. The most aggressive and violent aspects of men’s inherited behaviors—summarized in the predisposition to team aggression—too often overshadow the more benign aims of women, especially that to have surviving and healthy children. Fortunately, women’s impulses and aims are also based on deep evolutionary programming. All we have to do is create the conditions that allow them to be expressed.

Western Plans For DePopulation And DeIndustrialization Of The ME

2009-05-04T05:28:52.467Z

In his book A Brutal Friendship, Said Aburish defined three phases of Western-Islamic relations. The first was the period during which Britain used Islam to help legitimize the puppet dictators that they had installed over their Arab colonies after World War I. The second phase was a period during which Britain (and America) used militant Islam as a force to help topple governments such as Mossadegh’s and Nasser’s that were trying to fight Western domination. Aburish writes,

“The struggle between Nasser and the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots and Western and traditional Arab regimes’ supporters continued until the 1967 War. Western support for Islam was provided openly and accepted by the leadership of the Islamic movements without reservation.” (1)

Aburish notes that Islam had a good image in the West up to this time. The Islamic movement was noted most for its anti-communist outlook and there was little foresight that conservative Islam might turn against the West. Aburish then begins to describe the third phase,

“The third phase in the development of Islamic movements occurred after the 1967 war. The defeat of Nasser was a defeat for the force he represented, secularism, and with Nasser diminished, the Islamic movements moved to assume the political leadership of the masses of Arab Middle East.” (2)

After 1967 the power of the Islamic movements greatly increased. Islamic theology overtook secularism and a more potent form of Arab nationalism emerged. The Six Day War saw the West stand by as Israel defeated her Arab neighbors, capturing the Sinai, the West Bank and the Golan Heights. It then became clear to most Muslims that the West favored Israel over the Arabs and resentment towards the West increased. This third phase of Western-Islamic relations began when factions of this predominantly anti-Western Fundamentalist Islamic movement began to exercise their new political influence throughout areas of the Muslim world.
After Nasser died in 1970 and was replaced by Anwar al-Sadat the new Egyptian president tried to appease the threat of militant Islam by releasing all of the imprisoned members of the Muslim Brotherhood, despite the fact that the Brotherhood had been involved in at least four separate assassination attempts on Nasser’s life over the previous sixteen years. Sadat then joined forces with King Faisal of Saudi Arabia and they became sponsors and promoters of the Al Azhar Islamic university as well as Islamic movements such as Al Dawa and I’tisam. These leaders realized that it was best to at least appear to support the rise of the Islamic movements. (3)

On October 6, 1973 Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on the Israeli Army in the Sinai and the Golan Heights. On October 16 OPEC raised the price of oil by a whopping 70%, and then the next day Arab OPEC leaders announced that they would enforce a progressive embargo against Europe and the United States until Israel was forced to withdraw to their pre-1967 borders.

Engdahl’s book, A Century of War, relates how US National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger was able to convince Germany not to declare neutrality regarding the October war, while Britain “was allowed to clearly state its neutrality.” Britain remained neutral throughout the entire episode and was one of the few Western countries not placed under the Arab oil embargo. (4)

The Yom Kippur War ended on October 26, but the effects were such that the Arab regimes came out much better in several respects. Firstly, they had finally been effective militarily against Israel and they had won back some territory. Secondly, their regimes were infused with a great deal of popular support and the voice of the Islamic militants was temporarily quelled. Lastly, the Arab nations suddenly became the benefactors of a huge increase in oil revenues, from $3.01 a barrel in early ‘73, to $11.65 a barrel in early ‘74. (5)

Engdahl relates that the rise in oil prices was something that had been planned previously by the Anglo-American Establishment and mentioned at the Bilderberg conference in May, 1973 in Saltsjoebaden, Sweden. Kissinger was the point man in engineering the Arab-Israeli conflict that created the excuse for the oil price hike that helped to rescue Britain’s North Sea oil projects that had previously been seen as risky investments. The most catastrophic effect, however, was that the rise in energy prices put a quick halt to Third World industrialization, forcing many countries to borrow a great deal of money over the years to pay for energy, thus setting the stage for the long-term indebtedness of the Third World to Anglo-American banks (6).

After the war the Establishment awarded Kissinger the Nobel Peace Prize and later he received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth, for his lifelong devoted service to the Crown, in 1995.

The Arab regimes were suddenly greatly enriched as a result of the rise in oil prices, but the threat of the Islamic movements remained. King Faisal of Saudi Arabia feigned support for Islam, but was often forced to crack down on the religious leaders and organizations that seemed to constantly criticize the royal family’s overt greed, luxury and corruption. Faisal was assassinated in 1975 by his nephew Prince Faisali bni Musad, in retaliation for Faisal’s execution of Musad’s Muslim Zealot brother who had attacked a TV station on the grounds that it was a violation of Islam. (7)

In Egypt Sadat’s regime came under extreme pressure from the Islamic movements after he signed the Camp David Accords with Israel in 1978. This led to the assassination of Sadat, by members of Islamic Jihad, an offshoot group of the Muslim Brotherhood, on October 6, 1981.

In Syria, in 1982, there was a major conflict between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Syrian government at the city of Hamma that resulted in 20,000 casualties. In the aftermath Syria’s President Asad revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood forces were armed with US-made equipment. Aburish comments on how none of these events seemed to change the way in which militant Islam was used,

“Hamma, the assassination of Sadat and Faisal and less portentous acts didn’t interrupt Western and Arab client regimes’ support for Islamic movements, and Saudi Arabia and Egypt allowed pro-Islamic use of their state propaganda apparatus… And Israel, forever inclined to back divisive movements, surfaced as another supporter of Islam and began to fund the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas.” (8)

The most noteworthy success of the Islamic movement during this time was of course the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and the installation of the Ayatollah Khomeini as the Islamic dictator. British Intelligence had used their contacts with Iran’s mullahs and ayatollahs to help overthrow Mossadegh and install the Shah back in 1953, and these contacts were maintained and used again to overthrow the Shah when his regime fell out of favor.

The Establishment history of Iran’s Islamic Revolution is that Khomeini’s revolt was spontaneous and populist, and that it overthrew a repressive dictatorship that was hated by the people but supported wholeheartedly by the United States. It is true that the Shah’s government was not a democracy and that his secret service, trained by the CIA, was one of the most effective intelligence organizations in the world. But what is not reported is that prior to the British-sponsored massive public relations campaign on behalf of the Ayatollah the government of the Shah was loved by the vast majority of the population.

After taking over from Mossadegh the Shah began to push forward a number of nationalist policies that increased his popularity at home but, in some cases, worried the Anglo-American Establishment. First, he signed petroleum agreements with ENI, the Italian oil company. Then in 1963 he pushed forward on a series of popular reforms that became known as the White Revolution. The Shah evolved into a nationalist whose path paralleled that of Nasser far too much for the Establishment’s liking:- He bought land from the upper classes and, along with the crown’s own land, sold it back cheaply to tenant farmers, allowing over one a half million people to become land owners and ending the old feudal system.- He allowed women the right to vote, and brought an end to the wearing of the veil, which were “Westernizing” moves unwelcomed by the religious sector.- He pushed forward on a $90 billion nuclear power program. - He moved to shut down the lucrative opium industry that had been created during the days of British Empire control that had been running for a hundred years. (9)

In 1973 The Economist magazine featured Iran on the front cover with the caption: “Iran the Next Japan of the Middle East?” Iran’s economy had grown at a rate of 7-8% each year from 1965-1973 and was becoming an example for the developing nations of the world to follow. As far as the Anglo-American Establishment was concerned this could not be allowed to continue. Establishment goals were focused on world de-population and de-industrialization as formulated by policy makers like Lord Bertrand Russell and as advocated by establishment lackeys such as Kissinger, Zibigniew Brzezinski and Robert McNamara (the head of the World Bank), as well as by the British elites who controlled the World Wildlife Fund and other environmental front groups. Iran had to be brought down. (10)

The attack on the Shah’s government came through the Muslim Brotherhood and through the mullahs and ayatollahs of Iran, supported and manipulated by British Intelligence. Dr. John Coleman, a former British Intelligence agent and author of a number of books and monographs detailing the Establishment’s plan for a socialist world government, states in his report on Iran’s Islamic Revolution (11) that the Muslim Brotherhood was created by “the great names of British Middle East intelligence, T.E. Lawrence, E.G. Browne, Arnold Toynbee. St. John Philby and Bertrand Russell,” and that their mission was to “keep the Middle East backward so that its natural resource, oil, could continue to be looted…”

Dr. Coleman writes that in 1980 the broadcasts of Radio Free Iran divided the enemies of the Shah into four categories: 1. Iranian politicians bought by the Israeli Shin Bet, 2. The CIA’s network of agents, 3. The feudal landowners, 4. The Freemasons and the Muslim Brotherhood (viewed as the same enemy).

In his report Dr. Coleman writes that in Iran, “At one time there was even a joke about the mullahs being stamped ‘made in Britain.’” When the Shah introduced his plan for modernization in 1963 the Ayatollah Khomeini emerged as the leader of the religious opposition. Up until his exile from Iran in 1964, Khomeini was based at the religious city of Qom. Dr. Coleman relates that Radio Free Iran claimed that while at Qom Khomeini received a “monthly stipend from the British, and he is in constant contact with his masters, the British.”

Khomeini was kicked out of Iran and settled in Iraq. He lived there for a number of years until he was arrested by the Iraqi government and deported in 1978. French President D’Estang was then pressured to offer Khomeini refuge in France to continue his “Islamic studies.” While in France he became a Western celebrity and the symbol of the anti-Shah Islamic revolution. Coleman writes, “Once Khomeini was installed at the Chateau Neauphle, he began to receive a constant stream of visitors, many of them from the BBC, the CIA and British intelligence.”

At the same time Amnesty International was continuing its intense campaign against the Shah’s government, accusing it of torture and other terrible human rights abuses. The international press picked up on this theme and carried it around the world.

The BBC then became the Ayatollah’s main promoter. Dr. Coleman writes, “It was the BBC, which prepared and distributed to the mullahs in Iran all of the cassette tapes of Khomeini’s speeches, which inflamed the peasants. Then the BBC began to beam accounts of torture by the Shah’s SAVAK to all corners of the world… In September and October 1978 the BBC began to beam Khomeini’s inflammatory ravings direct to Iran in Farsi. The Washington Post said, ‘the BBC is Iran’s public enemy number one.’”

The BBC Persian Service came to be nicknamed in Iran the “Ayatollah BBC” for its non-stop coverage of everything that Khomeini wanted to say (12). Soon a large segment of the Iranian public, most of them impressionable young students, became convinced that the Shah truly was evil and that a return to pure shi’ite Islam under the Ayatollah’s leadership was the only way to save their country. The Carter Administration, manipulated by British lackey Zbigniew Brzezinski, then collaborated with the British to topple the Shah and install Khomeini.

Dr. Coleman relates that Carter appointed Trilateralist George Ball to head a commission on U.S. policy in the Persian Gulf. Ball’s recommendation was that the U.S. should withdraw its support for the Shah’s regime. Dr. Coleman quotes from the Shah’s own memoirs to confirm the American stance, the reality that is contrary to the mass-marketed Establishment line that the U.S. supported the Shah to the end,

“I did not know it then, perhaps I did not want to know - but it is clear to me now, the Americans wanted me out. What was I to make of the sudden appointment of Ball to the White House as an advisor to Iran? I knew that Ball was no friend of Iran. I understood that Ball was working on a special report on Iran. But no one ever informed me what areas the report was to cover, let alone its conclusions. I read them months later when I was in exile, and my worst fears were confirmed. Ball was among those Americans who wanted to abandon me, and ultimately my country.”

After the Shah stepped down in 1979 and fled the country his “firm ally,” the United States, even refused to allow him asylum forcing him to move with his family to Egypt. During the subsequent takeover of the American embassy when supporters of the Ayatollah kept Americans hostage for 444 days it became crystal clear to the entire world that the anti-democratic, anti-Israel Islamic movement was also very anti-West. Nonetheless the Anglo-American Establishment continued to support and promote radical Islam.

In 1977 Bhutto of Pakistan, who we will cover shortly, was removed; in 1979 the Shah of Iran was removed; in 1981 Sadat was assassinated, and in 1982 the Muslim Brotherhood revolted in Syria. Before 1977 the Middle East was on the verge of achieving stability and industrial and economic parity with the West through nationalist policies and high oil prices, but by the early ’80s the Middle East was in flames. Egypt was reeling and Mubarak was consolidating a shaky hold on power. Iran and Iraq, both armed by the West, were beginning their long war. Israel and Syria were invading Lebanon that was fighting a civil war, and Russia was invading Afghanistan whose rebels were being supported by Pakistan. The de-population and de-industrialization scheme advocated by the British and adopted by the Americans was off to a great start.

Is The Bible God's Word?

2009-05-04T05:21:33.787Z

What is the Bible? In addition, what does it mean to
say its Gods word? The sight of a Bible brings up
a host of feelings and reactions. Some say it is a
book of myths and fables. Others will say it is a
book of half-truths and cultural prejudices, the sight
of a bible can cause anger or arrest in some
countries. The Bible is the most published book in
the history of the world. The Bible claims to be the
inspired word of God, Gods message to humanity.
The words in the Bible have shaped the world we
live in today. Nevertheless, the sight of a Bible also
raises many questions.
Some commonly raised issues are; how can
a book written by man be Gods Word?What Bible is
the right one? Is the protestant Bible Gods word? Alternatively, is the Catholic Bible Gods word?
Why does the Catholic Bible have seven additional books? Who decided what books make up
the Bible?What books are excluded from the Bible? Why are there Old and New Testaments?
These questions among others are often unanswered for many. Confusion on these matters
causes many to dismiss the Bible as merely a book of men. The books in the Bible claim to be
the revelation of Gods word spoken through the prophets, relevant for all who lived. The Bibles
dismissal for many is the result of not evaluating its evidence and history.
What is the Bible?
The word Bible comes from the Greek word biblia meaning book which is derived from
byblos an ancient Phoenician (Lebanon) city where papyrus was exported. Papyrus is a watery
reed which was used to make paper. Papyrus paper was the chief writing material in the ancient
world till the 3rd century. The word paper is derived from the word Papyrus. The Bible is a
collection of books Inspired by God and revealed to man.
The Bible is divided into two parts; the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Old Testament contains 39 Books and the New Testament has 27 books.
When was the Bible written?
The Bible was written between 1450 BC and 90 AD.
There are two parts to the Bible. The Old Testament, (Hebrew:Tanach) and New Testament.
The Old Testament was written between 1450 BC and 425 BC.
The New Testament was written between 45 AD and 90 AD.
What language was the Bible written in?
The Bible is written in 3 languages.
 The Old Tesament is written in two languages; Hebrew and Aramaic1.
The parts written in Aramaic are: Daneil 2:4-7:28, Ezra 4:48-6:18, 7:11-26, Jeremiah
10:11, Genesis 31:47 (2 words)
 The New Testament is written in Koine2 Greek.

1 Aramaic was the common language of the Middle-East from the 8th century BC till the 4th century BC,
after it was replaced by the Koine Greek following the conquest of Alexander the Great.
2 Koine means common and was the common Greek language spoken from 4th century BC to the 6th
century AD.
Who wrote the Bible?
The Bible was written over a period of 1500 hundred years. By more then 40 differnet authors,
from every walk of life. On three differnent continents.
 The Old Testament was written by 29 differnet authors over a 1000 year period, including
kings, prime ministers, priests and shepards.
 The New Testament was written by 10 to 11 different authors over 45 year period of time,
including a rabbi, tax collector, fisherman, physician and others.
How was the Bible written?
The Bible was written under Inspiration from the Holy Spirit.
The word inspire is dervived from the latin word inspirare meaning
To breathe upon or into something. God revealed Himself through
individuals to speak to a much larger audience. In the same way some
one would pick up a pen. The pen would becomes the tool in the hand
of the writer, the prophet is Gods
pen, in revelation.
The Bible is a collection of
books. As the prophets received
revelation the books were
colleceted in manuscript3 form.
The orginal manuscript, written by
the prophet is known as the
autograph. The autograph is
inspired by God from the first generation. The autograph is
then copied to additional manuscripts. As the manuscripts
wear out over time from use and enviroment the manuscript is
again copied onto a new scroll. This process of copying the
old manuscript to a new manuscript is known as manuscript
transmission. Over a period of time the manuscripts from
accepted prophets were collected. This collection of
manuscripts is known to us as the Bible.
How were books in the Bible affirmed to be Gods word?
From the time of the exodus out of Egypt, God told Israel that he was going to
communicate with them through prophets. People who would speak for God and represent Him to
the people.
This was in response to the request from Israel who was afraid when God spoke to them
directly from Mt. Sinai, the people pleaded for Moses to speak for God to them rather then God
speaking to them direct, so they dont die. God was pleased with their request. (Exodus 20:18-
21)
17And the LORD said to me: What they have spoken is good. 18I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from
among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.
19And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him.
Deuteronomy 18:17-19
The words spoken have particular meaning according to these verses. Gods representative, the
prophet, would speak for God and Israel must listen. We see three important points here.
1. Gods words would come from his (prophet) mouth.
2. Those who reject Gods word, through the prophet, will be responsible.
3. The prophet will speak in Gods Name.
3 Manuscript is derived from the Latin words manu scriptus meaning Man written manuscripts are
hand written as opposed to printed documents.The position of Prophet came with power because the individual spoke for God. This was and is
a tempting propostion for many seeking power. There were many false prophets in Old Testiment
times. Moses gave two tests for those who would proclaim themselves prophet.
Signs but contradictory message
1If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, 2and the sign or
the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, Let us go after other godswhich you have not
knownand let us serve them, 3you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the
LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your
soul. 4You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you
shall serve Him and hold fast to Him
Deuteronomy 13:1-4
The first test of any prophet is does his message conform to what has already been revealed?
A sign or wonder, a super-natural event, by itself does not mean the message is Gods
message. The sign or wonder could be a test from God. The message must conform to earlier
revelations.
False Message spoken in Gods Name
20But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who
speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die. 21And if you say in your heart, How shall we know the word
which the LORD has not spoken? 22when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen
or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you
shall not be afraid of him.
Deuteronomy 18:20-22
The second test is one of logic and Gods nature. If the message is from God then it will happen,
if the message does not happen then the speaker is a false prophet and must be put to death.
Israel was not to fear false prophets.
Using this test, we can demonstrate who the false prophets are. We can examine the
Quran by Mohammed, The book of Mormon by Joseph Smith, JehovahWitnesses and other
group claiming divine representation.
How was the Bible inspired?
The Old Testament
Our Bible is a collection of books, in one volume with an Old Testament and a New
Testament. The Old and New Testament were assembled under differnet circumstances over
different periods of time. But the inclusion of certain Books as Gods word is based on the
same principles.
The first five books of the Old Testament is known as the Law or the Books of Moses.
Following Moses God spoke through individuals and there words were confirmed by events.
When their prophethod was demonstrated, their words, in manuscripts form, were added to the
library that would be known as the Old Testament.
For example Jeremiah, foretold the destruction of Jerusalem and urged Israel to
surrendor to Babylonian rulership which would last a period of 70 years. (Jeremiah 25:12)
His message was in opposition to the Kings prophets who threatened to kill Jeremiah for
proclaiming a False message. The events proved Jeremiahs words correct. (Jeremiah 26)
Daniel would later turn to the book of Jeremaih to pray for Gods restoration of Israel to the land.
(Daniel 9:2) These men spoke under the power of the Holy Spirit.
Earlier Prophets are confirmed by later prophets
Prophets would confirm the words of previous revelations, Joshua affirmed the words of
Moses(Joshua 1:7), Isaiah affirmed David as a prophet and progeneter of the Messiah (Isaiah
9:7), Jeremiah the words of Samuel (Jeremiah 15:1), Daniel affirmed the words of Jeremiah(Daniel 9:2), Ezekiel and Jesus affirmed the words of Daniel, (Ezekiel 28:3, Matthew 24:15),
Zechariah of previous prophets. The prophets who spoke for God, whose words were affirmed
by signs and wonders, established the Jewish canon4.
The scrolls were assembled in libraries which form the three part division of the Jewish
Bible.
12Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by
His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the LORD of hosts. 13Therefore it happened, that
just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so they called out and I would not listen, says the LORD of hosts.
Zechariah 7:12-13 (520-480 BC)
Yet for many years You had patience with them,
And testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets.
Yet they would not listen;
Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
Nehemiah 9:30 (444-425 BC)
Nehemiah collected the books of the Old Testament into one collection after the return from
Babylon. (2 Maccabees 2:13) Ezra was a scribe, who read the Law of Moses to the people who
returned to Jerusalem.
1Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of theWater Gate; and they
told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded Israel. 2So Ezra the
priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could hear with understanding on the
first day of the seventh month.
Nehemiah 8:1-2
The New Tesatment
In the New Testament Pauls words were called scripture by Peter, and Peter Apostalic
office was established by Jesus. After Pauls conversion, and seeing Jesus on the road to
Damascus Paul received both Apostolic and prophetic postion in the church. His words were
as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16as also in all his
epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and
unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.
2 Peter 3:15b,16
The writing of the Apostles were established as scripture by the prophetic and Apostolic office
designated by Jesus. Jesus also said the Apostles would receive inspiration from the Holy Spirit
to remember all Jesus told them. Their writings were collected in a new form known as codexs.
The Apostles would remember the words spoken by Jesus. Jesus words would be put in written
form for church to have inspired instruction.
26But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to
your remembrance all things that I said to you.
John 14:26
The words of the Apostles were inspired by Gods spirit as Jesus promised. The collected
writings of the Apostles circulated as they were copied from city to city.
16All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness, 17that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16
Jesus also testified to the writings of the Hebrew prophets of the Old Testament along with the
three-part division of the scriptures.
4 The word canon comes from the root word reed the reed was used as a measuring rod, and came to
mean standard. The Jewish canon consisted of the books that proved to be inspired by God and were
attested to by the prophetic line.44Then He said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be
fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me. 45And He opened
their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.
Luke 24:44-45.
What Old Testament did Jesus use?
Since Christianity is based on the identity of Jesus, the Old Testament Jesus used is the Old
Testament his church should use. There is internal evidence that reveal the Old Testament used
by Jesus is composed of the same books used in the Jewish Bible today. This would exclude
seven books known as the Apocrypha to Protestants and Jews and the Deuterocanonical books
to the Catholics.
1. Luke 24:44
Jesus makes reference in Luke 24:44, to a three part division of scripture; this division is the
current structure of the Jewish Bible. Psalms is the first and longest book of the third section of
the Jewish Bible.
2. Luke 11:51, Matthew
23:35
From the blood of Abel to the
blood of Zechariah With these words Jesus confirms his witness to the extent of the Old
Testament canon. Abel was the first martyr recorded in Scripture (Genesis 4:8) and Zechariah
the last martyr to be named in the Hebrew Old Testament order. Zechariah was stoned while
prophesying to the people in
the court of the house of the
Lord (2 Chronicles 24:21).
Genesis was the first book in
the Hebrew canon and 2
Chronicles the last. Jesus
was basically saying Genesis
to Chronicles, or according to
our order Genesis to Malachi
thereby confirming the divine
authority and inspiration of the
entire Hebrew canon.
3. John 10:31-36; Luke
24:44
Jesus disagreed with the oral
tradition of the Pharisees
(Mark 7, Matthew 15), not with
their concept of the Hebrew
canon. There is no evidence
whatever of any dispute
between Him and he Jews as
to the canonicity of any Old
Testament book
4. Prologue to
Ecclesiasticus
Sirach (130 B.C.)Sirach who wrote and lived in Jerusalem makes mention of most famous men of the Old
Testament. He makes explicit mention of the Twelve Prophets. (Minor Prophets) This would
indicate that the whole or at least the most of the OT was known to him and already in his day the
Minor Prophets were regarded as a special group by themselves.
In his prologue he three times refers to the tripartite division of the OT. Example: Whereas many
great teachings have been given to us through the law and the prophets and the others that
followed them Sirach 19:20-24
5. Philo
Just after Christ (about A.D. 40), Philo witnessed to a threefold classification, making reference
to the Law, the Prophets (or Prophecies), as well as hymns and the others which foster and
perfect knowledge and piety5
6. Josephus
About 90 AD, the Jewish historian spoke about the closing of the Hebrew canon.
Since Artaxerexes age the succession of prophets had ceased This is what he wrote in Contra
Apionem. Showing in his day the Canon was closed.
7. The Talmud
 Written between 350-425 for the
Jerusalem Talmud and about 500
AD for the Babylonian Talmud
specifically states the books of the
Apocrypha, including Sirach are
non-canonical.
Tosefta Yadaim 3:5
 Seder Olam Rabba 30 states,
Until then (the coming of
Alexander the Great and the end of
the empire of the Persians) the
prophets prophesied through the
Holy Spirit. From then on, incline
thine ear and hear the words of the
wise
 Tos. Sotah 13:2 baraita in Bab.
Yoma 9b, Bab. Sotah 48b and Bab.
Sanhedrin 11a: With the death of
Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi the
latter prophets, the Holy Spirit
ceased out of Israel.
Is the Apocrypha6 or Deutero-canonical
Books Gods Word?
When was the Hebrew Canon closed?
And Is the apocrypha part of Gods word?
These are two related questions.
The early Christian church was
made up of Jews and Gentiles. As the
church grew and gentiles became a greater
percentage of believers the ability to read
and understand the Hebrew Scriptures

WHO Basically Says Tamiflu Dont Work On A(H1N1)!

2009-05-04T04:48:51.777Z

AND IT WILL TAKE 5-6 MONTHS TO CREATE A REAL VACCINE!!
SO WHY DID DHS/CDC SHIP 1/4 OF THE STRATEGIC SUPPLY OF TAMIFLU OUT TO THE STATES??....AND WHAT IS IT REALLY FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE AND WHY DOES OBAMA NEED 1.5 BILLION DOLLARS?? TO BUY MORE TAMIFLU?? THERE ARE BLIND MEN AND WOMEN RUNNING THIS COUNTRY (INTO THE GROUND)!!
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/frequently_asked_questions/vaccine_preparedness/en/index.html
Vaccines for the new influenza A(H1N1)

2 May 2009

Is an effective vaccine already available against the new influenza A(H1N1) virus?

No, but work is already under way to develop such a vaccine. Influenza vaccines generally contain a dead or weakened form of a circulating virus. The vaccine prepares the body’s immune system to defend against a true infection. For the vaccine to protect as well as possible, the virus in it should match the circulating “wild-type” virus relatively closely. Since this H1N1 virus is new, there is no vaccine currently available made with this particular virus. Making a completely new influenza vaccine can take five to six months.

What implications does the declaration of a pandemic have on influenza vaccine production?

Declaration by WHO of phase 6 of pandemic alert does not by itself automatically translate into a request for vaccine manufacturers to immediately stop production of seasonal influenza vaccine and to start production of a pandemic vaccine. Since seasonal influenza can also cause severe disease, WHO will take several important considerations such as the epidemiology and the severity of the disease when deciding when to formally make recommendations on this matter. In the meantime, WHO will continue to interact very closely with regulatory and other agencies and influenza vaccine manufacturers.

How important will influenza A(H1N1) vaccines be for reducing pandemic disease?

Vaccines are one of the most valuable ways to protect people during influenza epidemics and pandemics. Other measures include anti-viral drugs, social distancing and personal hygiene.

Will currently available seasonal vaccine confer protection against influenza A(H1N1)?

The best scientific evidence available today is incomplete but suggests that seasonal vaccines will confer little or no protection against influenza A(H1N1).

What is WHO doing to facilitate production of influenza A(H1N1) vaccines?

As soon as the first human cases of new influenza A(H1N1) infection became known to WHO, the WHO Collaborating Center in Atlanta (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States of America) took immediate action and began the work to develop candidate vaccine viruses. WHO also initiated consultations with vaccine manufacturers worldwide to facilitate the availability of all necessary material to start production of influenza A(H1N1) vaccine. In parallel, WHO is working with national regulatory authorities to ensure that the new influenza A(H1N1) vaccine will meet all safety criteria and be made available as soon as possible.

Why is WHO not asking vaccine manufacturers to switch production from seasonal vaccine to a influenza A(H1N1) vaccine yet?

WHO has not recommended stopping production of seasonal influenza vaccine because this seasonal influenza causes 3 million to 5 million cases of severe illness each year, and kills from 250 000 to 500 000 people. Continued immunization against seasonal influenza is therefore important. Moreover, stopping seasonal vaccine production immediately would not allow a pandemic vaccine to be made quicker. At this time, WHO is liaising closely with vaccine manufacturers so large-scale vaccine production can start as soon as indicated.

Is it possible that manufacturers produce both seasonal and pandemic vaccines at the same time?

There are several potential options which must be considered based on all available evidence.

What is the process for developing a pandemic vaccine? Has a vaccine strain been identified, and if so by whom?

A vaccine for the Influenza A(H1N1) virus will be produced using licensed influenza vaccine processes in which the vaccine viruses are grown either in eggs or cells. Candidate vaccine strains have been identified and prepared by the WHO Collaborating Center in Atlanta (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States of America)1. These strains have now been received by the other WHO Collaborating Centers which have also started preparation of vaccine candidate viruses. Once developed, these strains will be distributed to all interested manufacturers on request. Availability is anticipated by mid-May.

How quickly will influenza A(H1N1) vaccines be available?

The first doses of Influenza A(H1N1) vaccine could be available in five to six months from identification of the pandemic strain. The regulatory approval will be conducted in parallel with the manufacturing process. Regulatory authorities have put into place expedited processes that do not compromise on the quality and safety of the vaccine. Delays in production could result from poor growth of the virus strain used to make the vaccine.

How would manufacturers be selected?

There are currently more than a dozen vaccine manufacturers with licenses to produce influenza vaccines. Upon request, the vaccine strain will be available to each of them, as well as to other qualified vaccine manufacturers who are preparing to make influenza vaccine but do not yet have a licensed influenza vaccine.

What is the global manufacturing capacity for a potential influenza A(H1N1) pandemic vaccine? Is this the same as the global manufacturing capacity for H5N1?

The projections made for the production capacity of an vaccine for H5N1 cannot be automatically assumed to be the capacity to make an H1N1 vaccine. H5N1 and H1N1 viruses are different and the amount of antigen needed to make an effective H1N1 vaccines may be different than for H5N1. Therefore it is not possible to make a precise estimate. However, given these considerations, a conservative estimate of global capacity is at least 1 to 2 billion doses per year.

How is production capacity for influenza vaccines distributed geographically?

More that 90% of the global capacity today is located in Europe and in North America. However, during the past five years, other regions have begun to acquire the technology to produce influenza vaccines. Six manufacturers in developing countries have done so with technical and financial support from WHO.

What will be the storage requirements for influenza A(H1N1) vaccine?

The vaccine should be stored under refrigerated conditions at between 2°C and 8°C.

It has been impossible so far to develop vaccines for major killers such as HIV and malaria. How sure are we that there will not be scientific or other hurdles in developing an effective influenza A(H1N1) vaccine?

Typically, development of influenza vaccines has not posed a problem. Influenza vaccines have been used in humans for many years and are known to be immunogenic and effective. Each year seasonal influenza vaccines with varying composition are produced for the northern and southern hemisphere influenza seasons. Vaccine manufacturers will employ a number of different technologies to develop their vaccines. They will take advantage, notably, of novel approaches that were developed over the past years for H5N1 avian influenza vaccines. One key unknown is yield of vaccine virus production, since some strains grow better than others and the behavior of the new influenza A(H1N1) strain in manufacturers’ systems is not yet known. New recombinant technologies are under development, but have not yet been approved for use.

Will influenza A(H1N1) vaccines be effective in all population groups?

There are not data on this but there also is no reason to expect that they would not, given current information.

Will the influenza A(H1N1) vaccine be safe?

Licensed vaccines are held to a very high standard of safety. All possible precautions will be taken to ensure safety of new influenza A(H1N1) vaccines.

How can a repeat of the 1976 swine flu vaccine complications (Guillain-Barré syndrome) experienced in the United States of America be avoided?

Guillain-Barré syndrome is an acute disorder of the nervous system. It is observed following a variety of infections, including influenza. Studies suggest that regular seasonal influenza vaccines could be associated with an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome on the order of one to two cases per million vaccinated persons. During the 1976 influenza vaccination campaign, this risk increased to around 10 cases per million vaccinated persons which led to the withdrawal of the vaccine.

Pandemic vaccines will be manufactured according to established standards. However, they are new products so there is an inherent risk that they will cause slightly differently reactions in humans. Close monitoring and investigation of all serious adverse events following administration of vaccine is essential. The systems for monitoring safety are an integral part of the strategies for the implementation of the new pandemic influenza vaccines. Quality control for the production of influenza vaccines has improved substantially since the 1970s.

Will it be possible to deliver new influenza A(H1N1) vaccine simultaneously with other vaccines?

Inactivated influenza vaccine can be given at the same time as other injectable vaccines, but the vaccines should be administered at different injection sites.

If the virus causes a mild pandemic in the warmer months and changes into something much more severe in, say, 6 months, will vaccines being developed now be effective?

It is too early to be able to predict changes in the influenza A(H1N1) virus as it continues to circulate in humans or how similar a mutated virus might be to the current virus. Careful surveillance for changes in the influenza A(H1N1) virus is ongoing. This close and constant monitoring will support a quick response should important changes in the virus be detected.

Will there be enough influenza A(H1N1) vaccine for everyone?

The estimated time to make enough vaccine to vaccinate the world's population against pandemic influenza will not be known until vaccine manufacturers will have been able to determine how much active ingredient (antigen) is needed to make one dose of effective influenza A(H1N1) vaccine.

In the past two years, influenza vaccine production capacity has increased sharply due to expansion of production facilities as well as advances in research, including the discovery and use of adjuvants. Adjuvants are substances added to a vaccine to make it more effective, thus conserving the active ingredient (antigen).

What is WHO's perspective on fairness and equity for vaccine availability?

The WHO Director-General has called for international solidarity in the response to the current situation. WHO regards the goal of ensuring fair and equitable access by all countries to response measures to be among the highest priorities. WHO is working very closely with partners including the vaccine manufacturing industry on this.

Who is likely to receive priority for vaccination with a future pandemic vaccine?

This decision is made by national authorities. As guidance, WHO will be tracking the evolution of the pandemic in real-time and making its findings public. As information becomes available, it may be possible to better define high-risk groups and to target vaccination for those groups, thus ensuring that limited supplies are used to greatest effect.

Will WHO be conducting mass influenza A(H1N1) vaccination campaigns?

No. National authorities will implement vaccination campaigns according to their national pandemic preparedness plans. WHO is exploring whether the vaccine can be packaged, for example, in multi-dose vials, to facilitate the rapid and efficient vaccination of large numbers of people.

Developing countries are very experienced in administering population-wide vaccination campaigns during public health emergencies caused by infectious diseases, including diseases like epidemic meningitis and yellow fever, as well as for polio eradication and measles control programmes.

How feasible will it be to immunize large numbers of people in developing countries against a pandemic virus?

Developing countries have considerable strategic and practical experience in delivering vaccines in mass campaigns. The main issue is not feasibility, but how to ensure timely access to adequate quantities of vaccine.

What is the estimated global number of doses of seasonal vaccine used annually?

The current annual demand is for less than 500 million doses per year.

Will seasonal influenza vaccine continue to be available?

At this time there is no recommendation to stop production of seasonal influenza vaccine.

1National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (UK), Food and Drug Administration/Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (USA), New York Medical College (USA), Victorian Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory (Australia)