Saturday October 6th 2007 - links page

The Origins of Big Brother in the Military/Industrial Complex  ---  http://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2007/10/origins-of-big-brother-in.html
Must Read - A quote...."Behind Winston's back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."  --*George Orwell*  - 1984, Chapter I, Part I,  - bold/italics by website author.

Gee....you're not wondering IF the government is listening to your conversations or watching you....but instead you now find yourself wondering WHEN they're doing so, isn't that just great?  Doesn't this all sound familiar?  1984 was a blockbuster when it was first printed and for good reason, the novel regrettably has turned out to be a horribly tragic, prescient work, of future-fact.

Of course our country didn't immediately descend into the pit of darkness in 1984; it took a little longer than that to deconstruct what our forefathers had built.  We as a people actually descended into the pit sixteen years later in 2000 when our rights to vote for “our” representatives were stolen from us, we trod downward even  further the following year when the population of this country willingly allowed themselves to be misled by a childishly concocted soap opera called 9/11, we reached rock bottom three years after that, exactly twenty years after 1984, during the 2004 elections when many Americans ratified their newly enacted slave status, broke their constitutional compact, placed themselves in chains, renounced their citizenship, sacrificed all their rights, and became Neo-Romans by willingly going to the polls to vote their nation, their constitution and their own freedoms out of existence.

America is dead....long live the New Unholy Roman Empire - mpg
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Torture, Secrecy, and the Bush Administration  ---  http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/04/horton-nyu-speech
Must Read - From the History File - A quote...."The Lilburne case sums up the most significant of what may be called the “Commonwealth reforms” of criminal procedure—one of the few legacies of the revolution to survive the restoration of the monarchy."

"Secrecy was what the Roundheads found most odious about the Stuart monarchs' justice. Certainly unjust practices accompanied some of our Puritan forefathers to this country; we can't forget the Salem witch trials, for instance. But so too, did a healthy contempt for the abuses practiced by the Stuart monarchs, starting with the notions of torture and secret courts with secret evidence. The contempt was reciprocal of course—they say that King Charles' lip would curl at the very mention of the word “Massachusetts,” and seven of the ten members of the first graduating class of Harvard—the class of 1642—returned to England to enlist in the Model Army and fight against the King. The practice of secret courts. The use of torture to secure confessions. The receipt of secret evidence. The exclusion of the public from proceedings. The offering of evidence in the form of summaries delivered to the judges, without the defendant being able to confront the evidence or conduct a cross-examination. These practices were the definition of tyrannical injustice to the Puritan fathers and the Founding Fathers. We thought them long-banished a hundred years and more before our own revolution. And now suddenly here they are again. "

As you read this article and the rights described within its text, just keep reminding yourself that many of your fellow citizens renounced these rights, treated them as if they were unimportant, of no consequence whatsoever and effectively gave them up for what amounts to fairy tales and a few pieces of silver. - mpg
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Another Military Attorney Bites the Dust  ---  http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2007/10/6/11944/5024
Related article - A quote...."This time, it's the chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo Bay "war crimes" trials who has asked to be "reassigned" apparently over disagreements with the manner in which those "trials" were to be conducted:"

Who Will Confront the Unprecedented and Unconstitutional Concentration of Executive Power?  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/nader10062007.html
Related article - A quote...."Where are the Lawyers of America? -- The rogue regime of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney-so widely condemned for its unconstitutional, criminal Iraq war, its spying on Americans illegally, its repeated illegal torture practices, its arrests and imprisonment of thousands in this country without charges and its pathological secrecy and corporate corruption-still has not felt the heat of the 800,000 practicing lawyers and their many bar organizations."

Federal judge tells military to halt Watada court-martial  ---  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003929212_watada7m.html
> NEWS ALERT <  Saturday, October 6, 2007 - Related article - A quote...."The fate of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, the first Army officer to face prison for refusing to deploy to Iraq, might be decided by a civilian judge rather than a military jury. - In a rare, last-minute move, U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle on Friday put Watada's Tuesday court-martial on hold. In the weeks ahead, Settle will decide whether this second trial should proceed, or be quashed as a violation of the officer's constitutional rights that protect against double jeopardy, or being tried twice for the same crime." - italics by website author

For more on this see....1st Lt. Ehren Watada  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mpgrapsheet-blogpg-mpg-012707#Watada
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PJB: Hillary a Shoo-in? Not By a Long Shot  ---  http://buchanan.org/blog/?p=858
A quote...."With President Bush reaching new lows in national polls, Christian conservatives threatening to bolt if Rudy is the nominee and the Iraq war bleeding support in Middle America, Republicans are in a funk about 2008. - And understandably and deservedly so. - The war, a product of hubris, born of the smashing triumph in Afghanistan, and ideology, a Wilsonian vision of democratizing the Middle East, has been a disaster for the country and the party that plunged us into it. And the Bush amnesty for illegal aliens ignited a rebellion that dealt the establishment its worst thrashing in many moons."

Except for implying a similarity between Woodrow Wilson's attempt to establish a democratic convention of governments to manage this planet's affairs - and the malevolent, genocidal, psychotic, winner take all, home invasion, gang banging, thugs-R-us, boyz in the hood, Murder Inc., world wide rampage, initiated by the Neocon's stage managed, blatantly obvious, pathetically covered up, keystone cops "fortuitous" event called 9/11....this article's really pretty good. – mpg
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Edwards Slams Top Clinton Strategist's Ties to Blackwater  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/october2007/061007Edwards.htm
Related article - A quote...."In a scathing attack, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards went after front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Friday, calling her a "corporate Democrat," comparing top Clinton campaign strategist Mark Penn to former Bush aide Karl Rove and assailing Penn's ties to Blackwater USA, the embattled private firm of military contractors accused by the Iraqi government of firing upon and killing 11 unarmed Iraqi civilians last month."

Are Presidents Entitled to Kill Foreigners?  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/bovard/bovard50.html
A quote...."What is the common term for ordering soldiers to kill vast numbers of innocent people?  -  A war crime. - 
But not when it is done on the command of the U.S. president. -  Killing innocent foreigners seems to be a perk of the modern presidency – akin to the band’s playing “Hail to the Chief” when he enters the room."

Attack on Iran: Morality Lost in the Garden of Deceits  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18513.htm
A quote.... "10/06/07 "ICH" -- --- Cry "Havoc," and let slip the dogs of war (Julius Caesar Act III, Scene I). The call for war against Iran was issued by no other than Mr. Bernard Kouchner the foreign minister of France, a country with the motto of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. France the home of Voltaire and Rousseau is now calling for war against a country that has never threatened France or its neighbours. France a nuclear power with illustrious colonial past is urging others to be aware of the dangers that nuclear weapons pose."

Whatever Happened to “Uncle Sam Wants You”?  ---  http://www.fff.org/comment/com0709d.asp
A quote...."In the highly probable event that America launches an aerial attack on Iran, the not-insubstantial Iranian army will move rapidly into Iraq bent on the slaughter of American troops. College Republicans and other young, “patriotic” pro-imperial supporters should make this their Teddy Roosevelt moment and leave for basic training now, that they might be ready to really support the troops — not with yellow ribbons this time, but with risk to their own lives. - The rest of young and hale America can best defend their homeland, their families, and the U.S. Constitution, not by kicking in the doors of brutalized Iraqis (and engendering a hatred of Uncle Sam that begs for terrorist retaliation here at home), but by refusing to serve in imperial war."

Inventing the Enemy  ---  http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/10/inventing-the-enemy/
Must Read - A quote...."The mainstream media’s bitter campaign against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his trip to New York City in late September was a superb study in what Noam Chomsky calls “manufacturing consent”–the all-but-unanimous media verdict on a given issue that serves the interests of the U.S. ruling establishment."

Rare march in Baghdad against new U.S. wall  ---  http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06422114.htm
A quote...."BAGHDAD, Oct 6 (Reuters) - More than a thousand Iraqis marched in west Baghdad on Saturday in a rare public demonstration to protest against a wall they say the U.S. military is planning to erect around their neighbourhood."

Brass in Pocket: A Chronicle of Blood Money Foretold - posted to the Moscow Times, Oct. 4, 2002
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1302&Itemid=135
From the History File - A quote...."Besides the oil industry, of course. Their eager slobbering over Saddam's barrels of black gold -- second largest oil reserves in the world -- has reached such torrential proportions in recent weeks that even the Dear Leader's cheerleaders in mainstream American media have had to put down their pom-poms for a second and take note of it. Usually in this vein: "An unexpected side benefit to President Bush's campaign to liberate the Iraqi people could be the opportunity it represents for some of America's largest hydrocarbon enterprises to develop profitable new venues for their useful goods and services," or some other such gumming of milky pabulum. But in any case, that particular fat cat is now out of the bag for all to see."

Afghans demand of US-led forces to quit Afghanistan  ---  http://www.afghannews.net/index.php?action=show&type=news&id=2424
A quote...."The News (Pakistan) - About 800 angry Afghans demanded Saturday that US-led forces quit their area to end heavy fighting as an Afghan official alleged foreign troops had shot dead two civilians in error."

6 Years Later, US Expands Afghan Base  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6977147,00.html
A quote...."BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) - Six years after the first U.S. bombs began falling on Afghanistan's Taliban government and its al-Qaida guests, America is planning for a long stay. - Originally envisioned as a temporary home for invading U.S. forces, the sprawling American base at Bagram, a former Soviet outpost in the shadow of the towering Hindu Kush mountains, is growing in size by nearly a third."

My Favorite ‘Anti-Semite’  ---  http://tonykaron.com/2007/10/03/my-favorite-anti-semite/
More on Tutu being banned - A quote...."The utterly charming thing about the Zionist Thought Police is their apparent inability to restrain themselves, even from the very excesses that will prove to be their own undoing. Having asked sane and rational people to believe that  Jimmy Carter is a Holocaust denier simply for pointing out the obvious about the apartheid regime Israel maintains in the occupied territories, the same crew now want us to believe that Archbishop Desmond Tutu is an anti-Semite. No jokes! That was the reason cited for Tutu being banned from speaking at St. Thomas University in Minneapolis. “We had heard some things he said that some people judged to be anti-Semitic and against Israeli policy,” explained university official Doug Hennes."
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FBI offered me $4m: Lockerbie bomb witness  ---  http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1597732007
Must Read - Some quotes...."A WITNESS in the Lockerbie case has claimed he was offered $4 million (£2 million) by American investigators to lie to the trial judges. - Edwin Bollier, head of the Swiss company MEBO that was said to have manufactured the timer used to detonate the Pan Am bomb, claims he was offered the money by the FBI at its Washington HQ in exchange for making a statement that supported the main line of inquiry - that Libya was responsible for the bombing."  --  "The claim follows news that the Maltese shopkeeper Tony Gauci, whose evidence led to Megrahi's conviction, was offered $2 million by the CIA."

Lockerbie evidence withheld from defence  ---  http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=184&id=1571662007
Related article - A quote...."FRESH doubt has been cast over the conviction of the Lockerbie bomber after it emerged a document containing vital evidence about the bomb timer has never been shown to the defence."
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The scandal of Blackwater  ---  http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2184891,00.html
A quote...."....the investigative process so far has hardly been impartial. Just hours before Prince's testimony, CNN reported that the state department's initial report on the shooting was drafted by a Blackwater contractor, Darren Hanner. The next day came the news that the FBI team assigned to look into the incident in Baghdad had a contract with Blackwater itself to provide security for their investigation."

Who owns you Americans? - Warning : harsh langauge - (YouTube - 3 min 26 sec - June 23, 2007)
  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KVTfcAyYGg
Must View - A redone video of George Carlin - A quote...."Nobody seems to notice... nobody seems to care"  --  Provided By: puppetgovcom - Music by Sigor Ros - Please check out our other videos at: www.puppetgov.com  ---  http://www.youtube.com/user/puppetgovcom

Ex-CIA Robert Baer Questions Use of Torture, Official 9/11 Story  ---  http://prisonplanet.com/articles/october2007/061007Baer.htm
A quote...."Robert Baer spent 20 years working for the CIA. He was a field officer in the Middle East and has seen it all. He says torture is useless - it leads to false confessions. And he doesn't believe the official story about 9/11. If CIA agents are questioning 9/11, then maybe you should be too. Do you even know the story of Building 7? What about the military drills going on that day - can you name them? Don't bother looking in the 9/11 Commission Report for this information. They conveniently left out all the many suspicious details that point to 9/11 being an inside job."

Monday 8 October 2007: March to Parliament, in Defiance of the Ban  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/143121
Update  -  A quote...."Sessional Orders are passed at the beginning of every Parliamentary session under an 1839 law to ensure free passage for MP’s to arrive and depart from Parliament. Similar Orders apply to the House of Lords."

Wow, what a compassionate group of people  ---  http://whateveritisimagainstit.blogspot.com/2007/10/wow-what-compassionate-group-of-people.html
A quote...."So I went to the supermarket today, and tried to buy one-third of a pound of ground beef from a butcher with a less than solid grasp of fractions.  He asked me if a third was more or less than a half; he thought it was about the same as three-fourths. It is to weep.  -  Speaking of ill-educated butchers, George Bush gave an interview to Al Arabiya yesterday. He was even less coherent than usual. His average sentence sounded like this: “And they’re making progress that I believe where the average Palestinian and average Israeli will begin to see what a vision looks like.”  -  He explained to the interviewer that “One of the hardest things for me is to meet with a mother.” Er, I think he meant mothers of soldiers killed in one of his wars (he had met one such mother the day before)." - italics by website author

George Bush has lots of "visions" himself, and we ALL know why, don't we folks? (wink, wink) - mpg
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Tom Friedman Puts on Dark Glasses and Discovers the Sun
  ---  http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/10/tom-friedman-puts-on-dark-glasses-and-discovers-the-sun/
A quote...."Given the hectic pace of life these days, I suppose it should come as no surprise that we Americans are inexorably loosing our ability to think for ourselves. Social critics have long sought a definitive explanation for this phenomenon, but have so far failed to come up with anything beyond a working hypothesis. The prevailing arguments tend to fall into one of three basic categories. They are:

a.) Americans are too busy to make sense of the complex geopolitical realities of the modern world;

b.) Americans are too stupid to make sense of the complex geopolitical realities of the modern world; or

c.) Americans are too stupid to know they are too stupid to make sense of the complex geopolitical realities of the modern world.

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Friday October 5th 2007 - links page

The latest revelations of lawbreaking, torture and extremism  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/10/04/lawlessness/index.html
Must Read - A quote...."Much outrage has been provoked by the generally excellent New York Times article this morning revealing the Bush administration's recent violations of legal restrictions on the use of torture and other "severe interrogation techniques." And, in one sense, the outrage is both understandable and appropriate. Today's revelations involve the now-familiar, defining attributes of this administration -- claims of limitless presidential power, operating in total secrecy and with no oversight, breaking of laws at will, serial misleading of the Congress and the country and, most of all, the shattering of every previous moral and legal constraint on our national behavior. -  But in another, more important, sense, this story reveals nothing new. As a country, we've known undeniably for almost two years now that we have a lawless government and a President who routinely orders our laws to be violated. His top officials have been repeatedly caught lying outright to Congress on the most critical questions we face. They have argued out in the open that the "constitutional duty" to defend the country means that nothing -- including our "laws" -- can limit what the President does.

Spot on. - mpg

Senate passes intelligence bill after Democrats back down on presidential briefings, CIA jails
  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Backing_down_on_demands_for_Iraq_1005.html
Related Article - A quote...."After a stalemate of over two years, the Senate passed the 2008 Intelligence Authorization bill Wednesday, with Democrats ceding a key provision regarding pre-war Iraq intelligence that Republicans had decried - Sources close to the Senate Intelligence Committee say one of the compromises Democrats made to ensure the bill’s passage was to remove language demanding the White House turn over all Presidential Daily Briefings on Iraq prior to the 2003 invasion. Democrats are said to have been hoping to establish whether President Bush mischaracterized intelligence in the lead-up to the conflict. - “The provision on the PDBs was dropped because Republicans objected and were blocking consideration of the bill,” a Senate source said Wednesday."
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Who Wants To Bomb Iran? Democrats, Not Republicans, Says Seymour Hersh
  ---  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-wiener/who-wants-to-bomb-iran-_b_67229.html
A quote...."When George Bush and Dick Cheney talk about their plans to bomb Iran, they are told "You can't do it, because every Republican is going to be defeated"--that's what a Republican former intelligence official told legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. "But," the former official went on, "Cheney doesn't give a rat's ass about the Republican worries, and neither does the President."  -  I recently spoke with Hersh, whose new piece, "Target Iran," is featured in The New Yorker this week.  - When I asked Hersh who wants to bomb Iran, he said, "Ironically there is a lot of pressure coming from Democrats. Hillary Clinton, Obama, and Edwards have all said we cannot have a nuclear-armed Iran. Clearly the pressure from Democrats is a reflection of - we might as well say it - Israeli and Jewish input." He added the obvious: "a lot of money comes to the Democratic campaigns" from Jewish contributors."

Can They Sink Any Lower? - The Democrats and Iran  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/sustar10052007.html
Related article - A quote...."Voting to declare one of Iran's security forces a "terrorist organization." Authorizing yet more funding for Bush's war on Iraq. Declaring that U.S. troops might occupy Iraq until at least January 2013. - Sounds like the posturing of one of the whatshisnames running for the Republican presidential nomination. But these are the policies and political positions of the Democratic Congress and its leading presidential contenders."

"We Don't Speak To Evil"  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18508.htm
Related article - A quote...." Capitalizing on the reliable ignorance of the American public and the indolent gullibility of its journalists, the Bush Administration regularly conflates its numerous targets of regime change, pretending they love each other to death and are united only in their desire to slaughter innocent American children. There are gaping chasms in this narrative, but they vanish into our national memory hole."
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Posted at Juan Cole Friday, October 05, 2007  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2007/10/iraq-turns-to-china-for-arms-shiite.html


What this whole thing is about....is another major step toward civil war, all aided and abetted by the US military.  It appears the
 "flipping of Iraq"  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/flipiraqinterruptus-essay-mpg-121406  ---  is possibly back on track. - mpg
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Opening of US Embassy in Iraq Delayed  ---  http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jSQ14PoKO8jjCLmzfdzIzty14IjwD8S2P8BG1
A quote...."WASHINGTON (AP) — The opening of a mammoth, $600 million U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which had been planned for last month, has now been delayed well into next year, U.S. officials said Thursday. The Vatican-sized compound, which will be the world's largest diplomatic mission, has been beset by construction and logistical problems." - bold/italics by website author

Isn't it just great to have a bunch of morons spend our hard earned tax dollars on their sick, twisted and bloody version of the New Roman Empire? - mpg
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Iraqi leaders turn against US-created 'militias'  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Iraqi_leaders_turn_against_US_creat_10042007.html
Related article - A quote...."BAGHDAD (AFP) - The Iraqi government lashed out on Thursday against a US military initiative that pits civilians against al-Qaeda fighters, accusing it of creating new militias in the war-weary nation. - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's media adviser Yasin Majeed said the Shiite-led government was now trying to bring armed groups set up by the US military under the control of the Iraqi army."

Mike Gravel on PBS - The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer - (YouTube - 17min 35sec - 100307)
 ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsP-YdOLAu4
posted at ICH  ---  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18503.htm
Must View - A quote...."Mike Gravel interviews on the October 2nd Edition of 'The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.' He discusses his time in the US Senate, NI4D, the FairTax, and much more!"

Eight More Wrongly Imprisoned Men are Quietly Released - The Anonymous Victims of Guantánamo
  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/worthington10052007.html
A quote...."Hot on the heels of the release of Mohammed al-Amin, a Mauritanian student who was just a teenager when he was kidnapped for a bounty payment on a street in Pakistan over five years ago, the Pentagon has released another eight detainees -- six Afghans, a Libyan and a Yemeni -- thinning "the worst of the worst" at Guantánamo from 778 men to just 335.  -  Of the six Afghans released, the identities of three are unknown. This is hardly surprising, as the Department of Defense never reveals the names of those it releases, and the media long ago abandoned turning up in Kabul to welcome back another bunch of farmers, shopkeepers and Taliban conscripts from their brutal and surreal sojourn in a small corner of Cuba that is forever America."

So Who's Afraid of the Israel Lobby?  ---  http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/100507a.html
A quote...."Virtually everyone: Republican, Democrat—Conservative, Liberal.  The fear factor is non-partisan, you might say, and palpable. - The American Israel Public Affairs Committee brags that it is the most influential foreign policy lobbying organization on Capitol Hill, and has demonstrated that time and again, and not only on Capitol Hill."

Venezuela Responds to US Secretary of Defense  ---  http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2687
A quote...."Caracas, October 4, 2007 (venezuelanalysis.com)- Responding to US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said that Hugo Chavez is a "threat to regional stability," Venezuelan Vice-President Jorge Rodriguez affirmed that Hugo Chavez is indeed a "tremendous threat" to the "empires of the world," and assured they would continue to be a "greater threat" as time goes on."

A Triumphant Advance in Ecuador - Popular Forces Sweep Constituent Assembly Elections
  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6980
A quote...."Today Ecuador is undergoing a triumphant advance. Of the three anti-imperialist governments in South America that are now pursuing a process of change, the regime in Ecuador has the broadest support."

Iran-Syria sign billion dollar gas deal  ---  http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hUSvHObLROBjLNuAfGrJnsgR-3AA
A quote...."TEHRAN (AFP) — Fellow US foes Iran and Syria have signed an agreement for Tehran to export a billion dollars worth of gas every year to its chief regional ally, Iranian state television reported on Thursday.  Iranian caretaker Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari and Syrian counterpart Sufian Allaw signed the memorandum of understanding in Tehran that will see Iran exporting three billion cubic metres (105 billion cubic feet) of natural gas annually to Syria."

Report: Iran worried over Syrian air defense failure in IAF strike  ---  http://www.falseflagnews.com/node/219
A quote..."Iran is concerned over the failure of Syria's air defense systems to detect the Israel Air Force non-stealth aircraft that reportedly carried out an attack inside Syria last month, the American weekly Aviation Week reported on its Web site on Wednesday."

Sarkozy and Bush: 'De Gaulle Must be Turning in His Grave' - posted at Watching America  ---  http://www.watchingamerica.com/index.shtml
  ---  http://www.watchingamerica.com/tunishebdo000080.shtml
A quote...."Charles de Gaulle - who did all he could to give France a certain freedom of action with respect with the United States, followed thereafter by all of his successors up to Chirac - must be turning in his grave."

Indian economy 'to overtake UK'  ---  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6294409.stm
A quote...."India could overtake Britain and have the world's fifth largest economy within a decade as the country's growth accelerates, a new report says. - If trends continue, India's economy may then surpass the US and be second only to China's by mid-century, the report by investment bank Goldman Sachs says."

Security Alliances Led By Russia, China Pool Resources
  ---  http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/10/52B7E84D-84AD-455F-804F-DD4AACCB4EFD.html
A quote...." DUSHANBE, October 5, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- A Russian-led defense alliance of former Soviet states and a regional security body headed by China have agreed to broaden cooperation. - The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) signed the deal today on the sidelines of a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe."
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Putin touches the pawn and wins: Putin to become Russian PM?  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6985
A quote..."Vladimir Putin has confounded all predictions by saying he would head United Russia's federal list at the State Duma elections in December, and might become prime minister in 2008."

In other words Putin is to remain head of Russia.  Considering how he's handled his duties so far and brought Russia back from the brink of utter destitution, impoverishment and national humiliation, it's great news for Russia...however it’s not such great news for democracy.

Or should one say a "well managed, smoothly functioning system of true democracy"

It appears Putin has decided that authoritarianism under his demonstrably better leadership is a heck of a lot better than the catastrophic Yeltsin years of non-stop klepto-crony-oligarchic-capitalism (a.k.a. Neo-Liberalism) which was imposed on Russia by the US's elites as their version of  "shock therapy" ** (remember shock and awe**) to "help" (a word that from now on when used by anyone from the US shall cause feelings of fear and loathing in those who hear it) Russia in an obvious and blatant attempt to break that country apart in an effort to steal it's natural resources.

And he has already been proven to be correct in that judgment.  But he's just one man who so far has made some brilliant decisions with a great deal of help from his loyal followers (mostly former KGB).  He, himself however, is not "a system" which can spread risk, promote stability during political transitions and encourage the inclusion of dissenting voices even if he "as a single individual" diligently does so while he remains in office.

In other words there are grave risks - either way - in going down this road and one should therefore always remember two very time worn, but true, cautions.  Power corrupts (always) and absolute power corrupts absolutely....and the road to hell is paved with good intentions. – mpg

**  For more on this issue of "Shock" -  see....Naomi Kline's The Shock Doctrine  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kieyjfZDUIc  ---  (YouTube - 6min 46sec - September 07, 2007)  --  A quote...."Directed by Jonas Cuarón,. Alfonso Cuarón, director of "Children of Men", and Naomi Klein, author of "No Logo", present a short film from Klein's book "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism." - posted 09-10-07
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More Naomi....
Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine - (YouTube - avg. 5-7 min - September 04, 2007)
Part I  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ka3Pb_StJn4&mode=related&search=
Part II  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du3mpRkaz8g&mode=related&search=
Part III  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og2gYUVURAI&mode=related&search=
Part IV  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRvuGLM_Pe4&mode=related&search=
Part V  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7FcoU0LLUU&mode=related&search=
Part VI  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG_xRZW32X0&mode=related&search=
Lecture - A quote...."Naomi Klein talks about her new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism."

And even more Naomi....
Naomi Klein: From Think Tanks to Battle Tanks, "The Quest to Impose a Single World Market Has Casualties Now in the Millions"
  ---  http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/15/1432250
 -  A quote....'Is Another World Possible?' That was the theme of this year's annual meeting of the American Sociological Association that was held in New York City this past weekend. "We did not lose the battles of ideas. We were not outsmarted and we were not out-argued,” journalist and author Naomi Klein said. “We lost because we were crushed. Sometimes we were crushed by army tanks, and sometimes we were crushed by think tanks. And by think tanks I mean the people who are paid to think by the makers of tanks." Klein is author of the forthcoming book, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism." [includes rush transcript]"

Listen to Segment  ||  ---  http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2007/aug/audio/dn20070815.ra&proto=rtsp&start=24:31
Download Show mp3  ||  ---  http://www.archive.org/download/dn2007-0815/dn2007-0815-1_64kb.mp3
Watch 128k stream  ||  ---  http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2007/aug/video/dnB20070815a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=24:31
Watch 256k stream  ||  ---  http://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2007/aug/video/dnB20070815a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=24:31
Read Transcript  ||  ---  http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/15/1432250#transcript

The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America (Hardcover)  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/store/items/793
A BuzzFlash Book Review - A quote...."This is a brilliant book, impeccably documented, that sees the executive branch of the American goverment through a prism of skepticism and alarm, bolstered by heavily footnoted sources. - Dale raises vital unanswered questions about the emergence of the secret state within a state in the United States, while avoiding the pitfall of descending into adamant conspiracy theories."

A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Paperback)  ---  http://www.buzzflash.com/store/items/780
A BuzzFlash Book Review - A quote...."Here's the bad news - most Americans don't know what "neoliberalism" is. -  But the good news is that David Harvey has written the most brilliant, concise, and clear history of neoliberalism I've ever found"
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[British] Police ban antiwar march  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2007/oct2007/ban-o06.shtml
A quote...."The Metropolitan Police have banned a demonstration by the Stop the War Coalition in central London. Police spokesmen have indicated that this is in response to pressure from the Labour government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown."

8th October: Tony Benn to ignore ban on Iraq demonstration & march to UK Parliament  ---  http://www.iraq-war.ru/article/143121
Related article - A quote...."Tony Benn, Brian Eno, Mark Thomas, Walter Wolfgang, George Galloway and Ben Griffin (ex SAS trooper) will head the march to Parliament in defiance of the ban. Make sure you are there to demand troops out and in defence of our civil liberties. It is vital that we defy the ban. Don’t miss this demo."
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Were Friends of the Fed Tipped Off?  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/duffy/duffy13.html
Must Read - A quote...."According to an October 3rd article on Bloomberg, a phone call from none other than Robert Rubin (a.k.a. "Mr. Bailout") to Ben Bernanke in early August set in motion a series of public and private sector conversations that culminated in the surprise discount rate cut on August 17th:"

Blackwater’s bullets over Baghdad  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2501.shtml
A quote...."Blackwater USA has sprayed more bullets over Baghdad than any government contract killers, er, cowboys. Nearly 200 shootings in Iraq since 2005, mostly from moving vehicles, no stops for body counts, let alone helping the wounded. This according to a new report from Congress. In fact, Blackwater is almost an insurgency unto itself. Whatcha think?"

Turd Blossom's Farewell - The Last Memo of Karl Rove  ---  http://muckrakerreport.com/id518.html
A quote...."By the time you read this, I’ll be gone. You know me, never wanted the limelight, no big farewell party, just slip out the back door with a suitcase full of stock options, sweetheart deals, and fond memories. - We’ve had some great times and you’ve all been part of it. It seems like yesterday we were stealing the election down in Florida. That Kathy Harris was quite the babe; sorry to see her go down in ’06…was that a poor choice of words?  We should all thank Osama for giving W a second chance, he was screwing things up pretty good before that, but like I always said, give me a pile of crap and I’ll grow a flower; we have our own Texas Rose in the White House to prove it."

Thursday October 4th 2007 - links page

How Rumsfeld Micromanaged Torture - "Make Sure This Happens!!"  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/andrew05012007.html
A quote...."When Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld boasted, as he did frequently, of his unrelenting focus on the war on terror, his audience would have been startled, maybe even shocked, to discover the activities that Rumsfeld found it necessary to supervise in minute detail. Close command and control of far away events from the Pentagon were not limited to the targeting of bombs and missiles. Thanks to breakthroughs in communications, the interrogation and torture of prisoners could be monitored on a real time basis also."

Is that what they call it...."close command and control"?  For years there have been a lot of jokes on the web to the effect that maybe those sickos in the White House really enjoyed this stuff, that they enjoyed watching those videos from Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and the other "black sites" throughout the world.  They're not jokes anymore and it's not funny anymore.  One would hope all you "Neo-Romans" in this country who voted for these perverts are ashamed of yourselves.  -  mpg - posted 05-01-07

Will the Watada Mistrial Spark an End to the War?  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0209-23.htm
Absolutely brilliant, Watada's conscience and his lawyer tied up the case into procedural knots because of the army's own hypocrisy.  Neither the court nor the army wanted to discuss the illegality of the war, but.... "prosecutors wanted the judge to find that Watada had agreed to pretrial stipulations that he had violated his duty when he refused to show up for movement to Iraq", "Watada maintained that his refusal to participate in an illegal war in Iraq was justified, indeed required, under the Army's own Uniform Code of Military Justice."

As a consequence of the pure, unalterable, irresistible logic of Watads's principled stance, the issue of the  illegality of the war was forced into the proceedings and openly discussed in the courtroom, violating the Judge's own prior rulings not to discuss the issue and therefore causing a mistrial. - mpg - posted 02-09-07

Army's Iraq War Objector [First Lt. Ehren Watada] Charged Again *  ---  http://www.thankyoult.org/content/view/1040/3/
It doesn't matter if the retrial violates double jeopardy, it doesn't matter if they have to shop for judges, put pressure on the ones they find, blackmail them if necessary.  It doesn't matter how many lies the military has to tell, it doesn't matter how many laws they have to break "to get him".  This government, especially the thugs that now run it, can not afford to have one of the "cannon fodder" openly defy them, it violates all their rules.

They will stoop to any level, try every trick, and tell any lie to make an example of Watada.

You can be absolutely sure First Lt. Ehren Watada knew this when he made his decision and took his stand. - mpg - posted 02-24-07 -- * link lost detected/changed 10-04-07

  ---  http://911research.wtc7.net/sept11/stockputs.html

Still Silence From 9-11 Stock Speculation Probe
  ---  http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/6/2/62018.shtml
Who Made The AA 'Put' Options The Days Prior To 9/11?
  ---  http://www.rense.com/general46/911.html
Profiting From Disaster?
  ---  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/19/eveningnews/main311834.shtml
Profits of Death -- Insider trading and 9-11
  ---  http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/12_06_01_death_profits_pt1.html
Sept 11, 2001: Unusual volumes on Put Options just before the attack. Swiss study
  ---  http://www.911blogger.com/node/11728
NewsMine : 9 11 : questions : stocks trades : - meta source
  ---  http://newsmine.org/archive/9-11/questions/stocks-trades/9-11-trades.txt
FLASHBACK: Mysterious pre 9/11 Put options
  ---  http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?topic=2057.0;wap2
Unanswered Questions about the Put-options and 9/11
  ---  http://www.projectcensored.org/newsflash/unanswered_questions_911.html#put
Put Options: betting against United, American and others before 9/11
  ---  http://www.oilempire.us/put-options.html
Was There Another 9/11 Attack on Wall Street?
  ---  http://www.nationalreview.com/rose/rose200407260700.asp