MPG'S DAILY RAPSHEET AND BLOTTER  ON THE "GREAT GAME"  --  12-03-08  to 12-09-08  links page

@ www.reficultnias.org
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Editor's note : From now on each weekly blog page will have several items culled from the past called  "9/11 - From The History File" : It's for those who didn't know, and also for those who forgot....or are trying to forget.

Editor's note - War Update, War Alert, War Warning, Red War Warning and War Imminent - refer to articles regarding the upcoming war with Iran.  In the order they appear as shown above, they  represent less serious to more serious possible threats of war. - mpg

As of 08-08-08 a new category of war warning will be included, the above warnings will have the prefix (WWIII) added to them to indicate the possible outbreak of greater hostilities. - mpg
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Tuesday December 9th 2008

The Mumbia Attack - 6 Articles - Tuesday - [ Day 13 ] ========== ========== ========== ====

Role of Alleged CIA Asset in Mumbai Attacks Being Downplayed
Special Note - A quote...."December 10, 2008 -- Recent press reports on developments with regard to last month’s attacks in Mumbai, India indicate the role of Dawood Ibrahim, a wanted crime boss, terrorist, and drug trafficker, is being downplayed, possibly the result of a deal taking place behind the scenes between the governments of the US, Pakistan, and India, to have others involved in the Mumbai attacks turned over while quietly diverting attention from a man who some say could reveal embarrassing secrets about the CIA’s involvement in criminal enterprises." -- also posted at OnlineJournal

The US, Pakistan and the “terrorist” Hamid Gul
Special Note - A quote...."10 December 2008 -- In the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, the name of retired Lieutenant General Hamid Gul, former head of Pakistani military intelligence—the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI)—has appeared prominently in the international press. Various newspapers have reported that the Bush administration is seeking to have Gul, together with at least three other Pakistani citizens, blacklisted at the UN for their alleged support for various terrorist groups, including Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is accused of orchestrating the Mumbai atrocity."

Operation continues against LeT-Dawa
A quote...."ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: The government launched on Monday a countrywide crackdown on the banned jihadi outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and charity organisation Jamaatud Dawa. -- Over two dozen people, including top Lashkar commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi wanted by India in connection with the Mumbai carnage, have been arrested. -- The operation, which was started in Muzaffarbad on Sunday, will continue and officials expect more arrests in coming days."

Pakistan renews cooperation offer: International obligations to be fulfilled: Defence Committee
A quote...."ISLAMABAD, Dec 8: Pakistan has renewed its offer of full cooperation to India, including intelligence-sharing and assistance in investigation into the Mumbai attacks as well as setting up a joint investigation commission. The announcement was made on Monday after a meeting of the defence committee of the cabinet, which reviewed the regional security situation in the backdrop of renewed Pakistan-India tensions."

Muslims in India Put Aside Grievances to Repudiate Terrorism
A quote...."Published: December 7, 2008  -- MUMBAI, India — Throngs of Indian Muslims, ranging from Bollywood actors to skullcap-wearing seminary students, marched through the heart of Mumbai and several other cities on Sunday, holding up banners proclaiming their condemnation of terrorism and loyalty to the Indian state."

Reports planted by US, says former ISI chief
A quote...."Posted: Dec 08, 2008 at 0031 hrs IST -- New Delhi: Dismissing reports that Pakistan had decided to hand him over to Indian authorities in connection with the investigations into last week’s Terror attacks in Mumbai, former ISI chief General Hamid Gul on Sunday such reports were being “planted” by the United States to malign him."

End - The Mumbia Attack - 6 Articles - Tuesday - [ Day 13 ] ========== ========== ========== ====

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Gen. Hayden and the claimed irrelevance of presidential appointments
A quote...."A report from U.S. News & World Report today suggests that Obama is considering having Gen. Michael Hayden -- Bush's former NSA Director -- remain on as CIA Director.  I have no idea whether that report is true, but here is what I do know:" -- also posted at Uruknet

Obama Will Not Prosecute Bush And Cheney - Yep! - mpg
A quote...."Mark my words. President Obama will follow in the footsteps of his predecessors by not holding his predecessor, George W. Bush and members of his administration, liable for violating the United States Constitution and criminally responsible for treason, 9/11, financial fraud, mass murder and war crimes."

Will You Continue to Ignore Gaza's Suffering, Mr Obama? - Yep! - mpg
A quote...."Palestine and Palestinian suffering have always taken a back seat in the world's attention while the United States starts this war, finishes off that war, or expands it; while the world deals with wars and economic crises; while the attention of the compassionate is taken up by starvation and pestilence and war in Sudan or in Congo or Rwanda or Somalia. Throughout these crises – quite legitimate crises all – Palestine is always left to molder, sometimes at a more rapid pace in more inhumane circumstances than at other times."
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Gitmo Military Prosecutor Breaks His Silence
Video - A quote...."The tribunals used for putting suspects on trial at Guantanamo Bay are a "stain on America's military", a former military prosecutor has told the BBC in his first interview since resigning."

U.S. And Allies Tortured Kids in Iraq Prisons
This article is shocking, If there is to any meaning to the word justice, all personell who participated in these abominations must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. - mpq -- A quote...."Since it invaded Iraq in 2003, the U.S. has detained thousands of juveniles---some of whom were tortured and sexually abused, according to published reports. Figures of the number of children behind bars vary. Some estimates put the number as high as 6,000." -- also posted at WarInIraq

British troops to leave Iraq in March: reports
A quote...."LONDON — Britain will start withdrawing most of its more than 4,000 troops from Iraq in March and plans to leave only 400 personnel by mid-2009, British newspapers reported on Wednesday."

Return of the Sticky Bomb
A quote...."Insurgent groups in Baghdad have added a new weapon to their urban warfare armoury by developing a small but deadly device to destroy vehicles carrying government employees, police officers and military personnel. Known as 'sticky bombs', they consist of a few pounds of plastic explosive that can be moulded into shape and attached to the target by a magnet or adhesive tape, then detonated by a timer or mobile phone. "

Coalition air raid kills 6 Afghan police
A quote...."US-led coalition air raid on a police station in southern Afghanistan has killed at least six police, wounded 11 others and killed one civilian."

Breaking the Stranglehold on Middle East News Coverage?
Interview -- Joshua Frank talks with Press TV correspondent Afshin Rattansi -- A quote...."December 10, 2008 "Information Clearinghouse" -- Afshin Rattansi has for more than a decade worked in broadcast and print media around the world. In the UK, he has worked at The Guardian, the New Statesman, for every regional and national outlet of the BBC. In 1999, he helped to launch the developing world's first global financial news and current affairs channel. He is currently a news anchor for Press TV. Rattansi has written six novels including "The Dream of the Decade - The London Novels". He recently spoke with Joshua Frank about Press TV. "

UN panel demands Israel lift Gaza blockade, free Palestinian prisoners
A quote...."The UN Human Rights Council called on Israel on Tuesday to take nearly 100 measures, from lifting its blockade on Gaza to releasing Arab detainees. -- The 47-member-state Council adopted its list of 99 recommendations by consensus at the end of a two-day review of Israel's human rights record."

Olmert: Shame sans substance
A quote...."The outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is all peace and love nowadays. One might even be driven to think he has developed a conscience. -- On Sunday, he told his Cabinet that he felt ashamed of the attacks by Jewish settlers on their innocent Palestinian neighbors in Hebron and went as far as equating the anti-Palestinian violence with “a pogrom.”

MIDEAST:  Gaza Fishermen Play Cat and Mouse with Israeli Navy
A quote...."RAMALLAH, West Bank, Dec 8 (IPS) - Israeli naval commandos recently hauled off three international peace activists off Palestinian fishing boats seven nautical miles off Gaza's coast. They were accompanying 15 Palestinian fishermen attempting to complete a day's fishing without being shot at or arrested by the Israeli navy."

Free Gaza Goes Fourth – Setting Sail Again The Newsletter of the Free Gaza Movement 1/2008, Dec. 8
A quote...."The Free Gaza Movement has successfully sailed three times from Cyprus to Gaza in a historic and ongoing endeavor to break the siege of Gaza. Now it goes fourth. The next voyage is scheduled for this Monday night and the ship has left the port. Calling it an “enemy entity”, Israel collectively punishes the whole population of the Gaza Strip – and Palestine in general – for something that is not really clear. If it was terror, the army and state would not create the conditions for violence by taking away the human rights and driving parts of the population into despair. The Free Gaza Movement takes a stand for Palestine and is fighting for equal rights. – Also in this issue: the situation in Gaza, the London meeting, the abducted Free Gaza members, a request for a php developer and the quote of the week."

Carter, in Lebanon, says ready to meet with Hezbollah officials
A quote...."Former United States President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday he is ready to meet with Hezbollah officials if the Lebanese militant group agreed to see him. Carter made the comments upon arrival in Lebanon where he will assess whether his Atlanta-based Carter Center would take part in monitoring next year's parliamentary elections."

Ergenekon agent spent time in northern New Jersey prior to 9/11
A quote...."(WMR) -- Tuncay Guney, the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) agent who was a key player in the right-wing “Deep State” Ergenekon movement that attempted to overthrow the Turkish government, spent time in North Jersey in the months prior to the 9/11 attacks, according to a reliable source who spoke to WMR."

December 3, 2008, 8:53 Alex Jones
RT-Video -- A quote...."The U.S. needs Georgia as a base to attack Iran in the future if it needed to, says Alex Jones, an American radio show host and documentary film-maker."

Russia against U.S. missiles in any European anti-missile plans
A quote...."MOSCOW, December 8 (RIA Novosti) - Any European missile defense network that includes elements of a U.S. missile shield in Poland and the Czech republic would be aimed against Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Monday."

Russian, Chinese defense ministers to meet in Beijing
A quote...."BEIJING, December 10 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian and Chinese defense ministers will meet in Beijing on Wednesday to discuss military cooperation, U.S. plans for a Central European missile shield, and North Korea's nuclear program."

How Holbrooke Lied His Way into a War
A quote...."Shortly before the bombing of Yugoslavia began in late March 1999, Richard Holbrooke met with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. By his own account, Holbrooke delivered the final ultimatum to Milosevic -- that if Yugoslavia didn't agree to the Rambouillet text, NATO would begin bombing. -- The Rambouillet text called for a defacto occupation of Yugoslavia. On major U.S. media, after the bombing of Yugoslavia began, Holbrooke claimed that what was called for in the Rambouillet text, despite Serbian protests, "isn't an occupation". Several weeks later, when confronted by a journalist familiar with the Rambouillet text, Holbrooke claimed: "I never said that". This was a lie, it was also a tacit admission that the Rambouillet text did call for an occupation (why else would Holbrooke deny saying it when he had?) So the U.S. demanded that Yugoslavia submit to occupation or be bombed -- and Holbrooke lied about this crucial fact when questioned about the cause of the war."

Imperialists just don't let you be: Or, let them eat dirt!
A quote...."In the December 5, 2008 issue of the Saigon Times Daily, on the front page there are two reports that say all you need to know about what imperialists do to you, even when you defeat them militarily and kick them out of your country."

How Rahm Emanuel Made Mega-Millions and Bought His Way to Power
A quote...."December 10, 2008 "Information Clearinghouse" -- ProPublica.. Posted December 9, 2008  -- Since Rahm Emanuel was appointed the next White House chief of staff last month, ProPublica has been retracing his previous life as an investment banker, which earned him more than $18 million in less than three years. -- The New York Times recently shed new light on Emanuel's Wall Street days -- and how they helped send him to Congress."

Siegelman appeal today...
A quote...."I may not have time to get the appeal outcome, but FYI, today Siegelman argues that his case be overturned in front of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. If I still have an internet connection, I will keep you posted. I would also appreciate you folks keeping me posted in the comments as well. -- If you are not familiar with the Don Siegelman case (as well as the other cases of political prosecutions, including Paul Minor, Oliver Diaz, etc.) then read my investigative series, here are the links to each installment below:...."

Part 1 - Political Prisoner
Part 2 - Siegelman's Daughter Speaks Out
Part 3 - Karl Rove Running Elections from the White House
Part 4 - Mississippi Prosecution, Justice Oliver Diaz
Part 5 - Justice Diaz Speaks
Part 6 - Break-ins plague targets of political prosecutions
Part 7 - Justice for Sale

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Three-Month Treasury Bills Lowest Since Auctions Began in 1929
A quote...."Why are treasuries at their lowest-ever rate? - Some of it is certainly because investors fear any other asset class except cash, given the massive economic crisis we face. - But analysts also point out other contributing factors:

American International Group faces $10 bln in losses on speculative trades, reports WSJ - Update
Financial Alert -- A quote...."Troubled insurer American International Group Inc. (AIG:  News ) is facing $10 billion in losses on trades, reported the Wall Street Journal. The company reportedly owes this money to Wall Street's biggest firms for speculative trades that turned bad. The losses total less than $10 billion of the company's $71.6 billion exposure to derivative contracts on debt pools called collateralized debt obligations as of September 30 -- The insurer is seeking to recover under a U.S. government rescue plan, but the newly surfaced losses are not covered by the terms of the current $150 billion rescue package for AIG."

How Bad Could It Get?
A quote...."In "What Goes Up", I discussed the law of booms and busts. A big boom with easy credit leads to a big bust. - The question is, given the boom we had between 2001-2007, how bad a bust might we have?"

World economy could shrink for first time since 1945
A quote...."Politicians must prepare themselves for the possibility that global economic growth shrinks for the first time since the Second World War, according to the World Bank."

Card Check
Special Note - A quote...."Paul L. Kasriel, the Director of Economic Research at The Northern Trust Company summed up Bernanke's dilemma like this: -- "In a sustained housing bust that causes banks to take a big hit to their capital (low interest rates) simply will not matter. This is essentially what happened recently in Japan and also in the US during the Great Depression. Most people are not aware of actions the Fed took during the Great Depression. Bernanke claims that the Fed did not act strong enough during the great depression. This is simply not true. The Fed slashed interest rates and injected huge sums of base money but it did no good. More recently, Japan did the same thing. It also did no good. If default rates get high enough, banks will simply be unwilling to lend which will severely limit money and credit creation." (Interview with Paul Kasriel; Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis)"

Regulator: High number of mortgages re-defaulting
Special Note - Financial Warning - A quote...."WASHINGTON(MarketWatch) - Office of the Comptroller of the Currency director John Dugan on Monday released statistics showing a high re-default rate on mortgages that have been modified in the first two quarters of 2008. "The results were surprising, and not in a good way," Dugan told a gathering in Washington at the Office of Thrift Supervision's annual conference. According to the OCC statistics, which looked at loans modified in the first quarter and second quarter of 2008, 36% of borrowers had re-defaulted by being more than 30 days past due and after six months, the rate was roughly 56%." -- bold/underline by website editor -- This is not good, period. - mpg

A Car Dealer Explains Why the Bailout is a Raw Deal
A quote..."I was chatting with the guy standing behind me who works at one of the 14 dealerships in a Philadelphia-area regional family-owned chain of GM dealerships called Bergey’s. Noting that a number of big dealers like Knopf (a Chrysler Dealer) and McGarrity’s (Ford) had been closing, I asked this Bergey’s manager if the problem was that the banks had frozen lending, making it hard for people to buy new cars. -- He laughed. “There’s no problem getting car loans from the small community banks around our dealerships,” he said. “They’ve got plenty of money to lend, and they’re happy to lend it to car buyers. The problem is that people are too worried about the economy and about their jobs to go out and buy a new car.”

Central America and Dominican Republic agree to create single currency
A quote...."(AFP). The presidents of the Central American countries and the Dominican Republic agreed on Friday to create a single currency and agreed a "plan of urgent measures" to tackle the financial crisis, which is contemplating to create a credit pool and stimulate intra-regional trade."

Central America Pushes For Unified Currency - Yes, yes, yes...de-couple from the dollar, it's their only hope. - mpg
A quote..."With the global financial slowdown dragging on Central American economies, eight heads of state came together in Honduras Friday to discuss how to head off the effects of the credit crisis. Presidents and vice presidents of the seven Central American countries plus the Dominican Republic for the annual Central American Integration System (SICA) leaders summit in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The leaders hammered out a 41-point economic agreement of “urgent measures,”including proposals to step up integration, food security, and investment. The countries also pitched the idea of creating a common currency. El Salvador and Panama use the U.S. dollar while the remaining countries currently have their own currencies."

Oldsmobile Nation
Special Note -- A quote...." The solution of Japan was to hide the so-called zombie loans of the zombie banks. That is not Washington's way. The banks' losses have been laid out for all the world to see. Then Congress engineered a series of bailouts to allow huge banks to be absorbed by larger banks. Number-four Wachovia was absorbed by number-one Citigroup in late September. Two months later, Citigroup was within a weekend of bankruptcy. The Treasury Department bailed it out."

China November PPI falls to 2% - China PPI falls to 6.6 % in October - China CPI eases to 4% in October
It's called deflation....in China of all places. Think of what THAT means for the rest of the world. - mpg

Monday December 8th 2008

The Mumbia Attack - 6 Articles - Monday - [ Day 12 ] ========== ========== ========== ====

The Mumbai Terror Attacks: Need For A Thorough Investigation
Special Note -- Some quotes...."In all the confusion and horror generated by the ghastly terrorist attacks in Bombay, a dimension which has not received the attention it deserves is the circumstances surrounding the death of Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare and two of his colleagues, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and Additional Commissioner of Police Ashok Kamte." -- "Hemant Karkare was engaged in unearthing a terror network with characteristics which had not been seen so far. The investigation started by tracing the motorcycle used to plant bombs in Malegaon in September 2008 to a Hindu Sadhvi, Pragyasingh Thakur; it later uncovered a cellphone conversation between her and Ramji, the man who planted the bombs, in which she asked why more people had not been killed. For the first time, the Indian state was conducting a thorough professional probe into a terror network centred on Hindu extremist organisations...."

Arrests made in Mumbai terror attack, but one may be Indian undercover officer, igniting controversy
Special Note -- Some quotes...."Saturday, December 6th 2008, 3:58 PM  -- The arrests, announced in the eastern city of Calcutta, were the first since the bloody siege ended. But what was touted as a rare success for India's beleaguered law enforcement agencies, quickly turned sour as police in two Indian regions squared off against one another. Senior police officers in Indian Kashmir, which has been at the heart of tensions between India and Pakistan, demanded the release of the officer, Mukhtar Ahmed, saying he was one of their own and had been involved in infiltrating Kashmiri militant groups."  --  "The implications of Ahmed's involvement — that Indian agents may have been in touch with the militants and perhaps supplied the SIM cards used in the attacks — added to the growing list of questions over India's ill-trained security forces, which are widely blamed for not thwarting the attacks." -- bold by webstie editor

Former ISI Chief: Mumbai And 9/11 Both “Inside Jobs”
Special Note - A quote...."December 8, 2008 -- General Hamid Gul, the former head of the Pakistani ISI, told CNN yesterday that both the Mumbai attacks and 9/11 were “inside jobs,” much to the chagrin of host and CFR luminary Fareed Zakaria, who told viewers that Gul’s opinions were “absolutely wrong and thoroughly discredited”. -- “When you look at the full spectrum of possibilities, who could have done it, then one knows that Samjhauta Express was a similar case, in which Pakistan ISI was accused. But it turned out that it was the militant Hindus themselves who had killed 68 passengers in that train, and that it was an inside job,” said Gul."

India arrests two in Mumbai attacks probe
A quote...."Sunday, December 07, 2008 -- KOLKATA: Indian police said on Saturday they had arrested two men who helped the Mumbai attackers get mobile phone cards which they used for communications during their three-day rampage. -- Police in Kolkata identified the men as Tausif Rehman and Mukhtar Ahmed and said they were picked up on Friday after investigators traced some of the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards recovered from the gunmen. -- “We are questioning them about procurement of SIM cards used in Mumbai,” Jawed Shamim, deputy commissioner of detectives in Kolkata, told Reuters."

Target Pakistan?
A quote...."December 7, 2008 -- The battle for Afghanistan and Iraq may be heading for stalemate and a quagmire. The Americans are now targeting Pakistan on almost a daily basis as unmanned drones crisscross into Pakistani territory and strike targets deep inside sovereign Pakistani airspace. While the Government in Islamabad keeps mum amidst allegations that they have allowed the Americans to strike inside Pakistan but do not have the courage to tell their people for fear of a certain political death.

Pakistan military taking control
A quote...."December 08, 2008 -- CONCERN grew in India yesterday that the Pakistan army had taken charge of the country's response to the Mumbai terror attacks and effectively staged a coup against the country's nascent democracy. -- Fears of a full-scale resumption of power by the army in Islamabad lie behind India's relatively cautious response to the crisis, despite New Delhi's insistence that elements in Pakistan orchestrated the slaughter in Mumbai. -- In a dramatic manifestation of the Pakistan army's role in the drama, the civilian Government reneged on its agreement with India to send the chief of the top spy agency, General Shuja Pasha, to New Delhi to help with the investigation. The army countermanded the deal."

End - The Mumbia Attack - 6 Articles - Monday - [ Day 12 ] ========== ========== ========== ====

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The plague and the eunuchs
Must Read - A quote...."To sell imperialism George W. Bush has used Freedom & Democracy; Barack Obama has promised change and change you will get. IPS reports:

WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (IPS) - A bipartisan task force of former top national security policymakers is calling on the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama to make the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities overseas a top U.S. foreign policy priority. In a report released here Monday, the group, which was co-chaired by former President Bill Clinton's Pentagon chief, William Cohen, and secretary of state, Madeleine [killing five hundred thousand Iraqi children was worth it] Albright, argued that mass atrocities threaten core U.S. national interests [especially in countries with lots of valuable natural resources] and that the national security bureaucracy should be reformed [given tons more money] to reflect that priority. [Otherwise known as the PNAC Deux Option]

Imagine Jack the Ripper and Jack the Stripper calling for the prevention of rape and serial killings. But the article above deserves to be read in its entirety; it will make you cry. -- In the next years we'll see the notorious humanitarian interventions spreading across the world as a plague; with Obama's smile and the progressive eunuchs' voices, it'll be a piece of cake." -- also posted at Uruknet -- Welcome yee of the new faith....welcome to the New Roman Empire. - mpg

Is Obama Backing Off a Crucial Pledge to Labor?
A quote...."It’s only been a month since hundreds of thousands of union members and their families helped Barack Obama win key “battleground states.”  Yet, already, some labor supporters of the president-elect fear he may be backing away from a key campaign promise to workers threatened by recession."

Obama May Keep CIA Chief. Ugggh.
A quote...."U.S. News says that team Obama might ask CIA chief Michael Hayden to stay on for a while. Let's hope not. Not only does the man have a history of condoning torture and misleading Congress, as Think Progress notes. But, in his role as head of the National Security Agency, he made a pair of titanic blunders. -- Before 9/11, Hayden shut down virtually all of the domestic eavesdropping efforts -- even though he could have gotten warrants to do so from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court." - bold/underline by website editor -- No bad deed goes unrewarded by our illustrious wealthy MIOC elites. - mpg
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Azerbaijan withdraws 150 soldiers from Iraq
Full quote...."MOSCOW, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Azerbaijan withdrew 150 peacekeepers from Iraq Sunday, according to news reaching here from Baku. -- The peacekeepers, deployed in Iraq to protect a reservoir and a hydro power plant, were pulled out under a decision made by the Azerbaijani parliament on Nov. 11, Russia's Interfax news agency quoted a statement of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry as saying. -- Azerbaijan called back all its soldiers from Kosovo in March. It now still has 90 peacekeepers in Afghanistan."

Pak militants target NATO trucks again - This is another attack. - mpg
A quote...."Militants have once again torched 100 NATO trucks in Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar in a second such attack in less than 48 hours. -- Several militants attacked a freight terminal on the outskirts of the city in the early hours of Monday, setting fire to several dozen containers and military vehicles."  -- bold by website editor

India, Russia regain elan of friendship
A quote...."The visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to New Delhi last week turned out to be an occasion for the Indian government to fundamentally reassess the strategic significance of the traditional India-Russia partnership. No doubt, the visit took place at a turning point in contemporary history and politics against the backdrop of massive shifts in the international system."

India, Russia sign 10 new energy agreements
A quote...."NEW DELHI: India’s “time-tested ties” with Russia crossed “a new milestone” yesterday as the two countries signed a landmark civil nuclear accord that envisages Moscow building four more reactors in Tamil Nadu. The two nations vowed to intensify their co-operation in combating terrorism. The two strategic partners, whose ties have “withstood the test of time”, signed 10 agreements in areas ranging from civil space programme, civil nuclear co-operation, economy, tourism and defence, and combating terrorism."

NATO scuttles US plan to encircle Russia
For the moment only.  Simply because the US-NRE is in the "let's play friends" build or "yang" phase. - mpg -- A quote...."North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ministers in Brussels have decided to ignore the wishes of the United States and delay the admission of Georgia and the Ukraine, in effect indefinitely, in what the George W Bush administration is sheepishly trying to claim is a positive "compromise".

The Russians are back
A quote...."With Russia it’s always like that,” writes contemporary Russia’s most read author, Viktor Pelevin. “You admire it and you cry, but when you look at what you admire up close, it can make you vomit.” That’s Pelevin, and others of the young generation. A mixture of compassion and fury. The rage of a young Russian against the post-Communist society that missed the curve and stuck the country in a repugnant swamp. But it’s also compassion for the Old Russia that he defends against superficial criticism and despite his violence he is solidary with its misery and its grandeur."

'Omni-President' Sarkozy Fritters Away French Democracy
A quote...."Instead of living up to his promise to be the president of all Frenchmen, Nicolas Sarkozy is splitting France right down the middle between those who love him and those who loathe him. His policy of "division instead of reconciliation," is now threatening to tear apart the fabric of French democracy."

A note from Shministit Omer Goldman
A quote...."My name is Omer Goldman. I am 19 years old. I am one of the Shministim. Thank you for signing the Shministim letter to support me and my friends. I first went to prison on September 23 and served 35 days. I am lucky, after 2 times in jail, I got a medical discharge, but I'm the only one. By the time you read this, many of my friends will be in prison too: in for three weeks, out for one, and then back in, over and over, until they are 21. The reason? We refuse to do military service for the Israeli army because of the occupation."

Despite all odds, Palestinians carry on with living in the Heart of Hebron
A quote...."Hebron, or Al-Khalil, lies 30 km south of Jerusalem and is the second largest Palestinian city with a population of 163,000 Palestinians. Hebron is one of the commercial centres of the Occupied Palestinian Territories and several industries emerged in Hebron and continue to find their home there. Like the rest of Palestine, the cancer of illegal settlements has set its lethal teeth in Hebron. This city is not only surrounded by settlements like other Palestinian cities and towns, but has settlement points in its heart. In 1968 a group of Israelis rented a hotel room in Hebron for 48 hours, after which they refused to leave, and 6 months later the establishment of a Jewish neighbourhood in Hebron was approved by the Zionist state, to be followed in 1970 by another approval to establish the illegal settlement Kiryat Arba. In 1980 the Israeli government decided to add a floor to the Beit Hadassah point, to be used as a school, the corner stone for a settlement in the heart of the old city of Hebron."

Israeli cocaine ring rounded up in Lima
A quote...."(WMR) -- Peruvian police have rounded up an Israeli-led cocaine smuggling ring, according to the Peruvian Ministry of the Interior and Reuters. -- On December 2, Peruvian police confiscated over a half ton of cocaine bound for Europe and Israel from Lima and Chorillos. In October, more sizable amounts of cocaine from the same criminal syndicate were seized by police in the Bahamas and Spain."
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The Fall of a Free Market Prophet
Special Note - This one was a lot of fun - mpg -- A quote...."Here's the thing about Jews. -- They like to think. --  Nudge one, and a philosopher begins to spout. They have a theory, about the world, God, food, love, human relations, politics. It's happy, it's sad. It is, especially, utopian. Jews always have these theories about how the world could be made perfect. -- They're good at it. They make up great theories. Partly because they're just theories, and partly because Jews are normally the underdog, there's almost always a humanistic heart beating beneath the ideologies they invent. -- But then, from time to time, a gentile gets hold of one of those theories, and, boy oh boy, there's trouble."

Milwaukee neighborhoods could print own money
A quote...."They may be talking funny money, but it's not funny business. -- Residents from the Milwaukee neighborhoods of Riverwest and East Side are scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss printing their own money. The idea is that the local cash could be used at neighborhood stores and businesses, thus encouraging local spending. The result, supporters hope, would be a bustling local economy, even as the rest of the nation deals with a recession."

Ill. Governor suspends all state business with Bank of America - Wow! Workers of the World Unite? - mpg
A quote...."BoA set to lose billions in business as Governor, President-elect show solidarity with workers. -- In a stinging note of support for the laid off workers that have taken up residency in Chicago's Republic Windows & Doors factory, the Governor of Illinois has suspended business with Bank of America until it reissues credit to the shuttered company."

What Are The People Who Predicted the Financial Crisis Predicting Now?
A quote...."There are only a handful of people who predicted this financial crisis, or at least its severity. -- What are they predicting now?"

Gingrich's Ties To Fannie, Freddie Go Even Deeper
A quote...."Earlier today we reported that Newt Gingrich had recently been on Fox denouncing Democatic lawmakers for ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- despite himself having worked as a consultant for Freddie back in 2006, helping to fight off potential regulation. -- But it turns out that the Newt-Freddie relationship goes even deeper."

The "Central Banks' Central Bank" says Bailouts Putting Nations at Risk, as Confirmed By Higher Credit Default Swap Spreads -- A quote...."The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is often called the "central banks' central bank", as it coordinates transactions between central banks."

Investor Fears Drive Treasury Yields To Near Zero
Special Note - Financial Alert -- A quote...."The panic in global financial markets has sparked an unprecedented rush into safe US Treasury securities, driving yields on short-term government notes down to almost zero."

The Fed’s Exploding Balance Sheet: What It Means and Reviving the Revolution
Special Note - A quote...."Bernanke and Company, who are running the U.S. central bank, the Federal Reserve (Fed), have been very busy in the past year or so. The size of the bank has more than doubled since August of 2007. Their assets, mainly loans and credits they extend, have exploded from $902.4 billion to $2.17 trillion as of December 3, 2008."

Just $15 billion left in original round of bailout funds - Hah! That was fast. - mpg
Special Note - A quote...."The government has just $15 billion left to spend from the first $350 billion pot of financial bailout money, the Treasury Department announced Monday."- One wonders where it all went.  See article shown below. - mpg

Merrill Lynch boss seeks 10-million-dlr bonus: report - It's your tax dollars folks, and you just let them take it. - mpg
A quote...."The chief executive of troubled Wall Street firm Merrill Lynch is seeking a 10-million-dollar bonus this year in the midst of a financial crisis which plunged his company into dire straits, US media reported Monday." -- For more on this issue see....Having Fun With Your Tax Dollars
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Chicago Tribune Files For Bankruptcy
A quote...."CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Tribune Co. said Monday that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to restructure its nearly $13 billion debt load, a move that dramatically underscores the dire circumstances clouding the near-term future of the newspaper industry."

NY Times Mortgages Its Own Building
A quote...."The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze as the company grapples with tighter credit and shrinking profits.

Oxford Dictionary culls hundreds of words
This article might be related to the two shown above. - mpg -- A quote...."Words linked to Christianity, the monarchy, British history and nature have been dropped from a leading dictionary for children. Among the entries that disappeared from the latest edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary are ‘disciple’, ‘bishop’, ‘chapel’, ‘empire’, ‘abbey’ and ‘coronation’. Instead, words like ‘blog’, ‘MP3 player’, and ‘voicemail’ have appeared in their place."

Sunday December 7th 2008

The Mumbia Attack - 9 Articles - Sunday - [ Day 11 ] ========== ========== ========== ====

Robert Fisk’s World: Whenever I'm in Tajikistan, my mobile phone says I'm in Dubai
Must Read - A quote...."Saturday, 6 December 2008 -- I knew I was in Tajikistan this week when my Lebanese roaming mobile phone welcomed me to "Russia" on arrival at Dushanbe airport. Yup folks, Alpha Beirut really believed I was in Mr Putin's empire. And, wondrous to behold, the phone pinged again when I was on my way to the Tajik town of Panj on the Amu Darya, welcoming me to Afghanistan. An hour later, when I was still in Tajikistan north of the ancient Oxus River – traversed by Alexander, who actually married a Tajik (later murdered, of course) – my mobile pinged once more. This time it welcomed me to the United Arab Emirates." -- also posted at ICH

Indian terror suspects linked to Mumbai plot
Special Note - A quote...."December 6, 2008 -- Police arrested four Indian Muslims for alleged involvement in a planned attack on Mumbai as early as February, a senior police officer who handled the case told The Times yesterday. -- One of them, Faheem Ahmed Ansari, was carrying a fake Pakistani passport and a list and maps of nine targets in southern Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal hotel and other sites attacked last week, the officer said. -- The revelation appears to undermine India’s assertion that the attack on Mumbai last week, in which 171 people were killed, was planned and executed only by Pakistani members of the militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which has links to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency."

Pak on track to being named terrorist state
After all the tens of billions of dollars the US-NRE has given to the Taliban and al-Qaeda through Pakistan's ISI, (along with all that extra help they got from the Saudis) you WOULD THINK the US-NRE would be the one to know who is a "terrorist" state, being one of the biggest sponsers of terror the world has ever seen. - mpg -- A quote...."Sunday, Dec 07, 2008 -- The United States is dusting off a long-discarded proposal to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism. But with the Bush administration now in its final six weeks in office, a decision in this regard is being left to the incoming Obama government, sources said, contingent on corrective actions taken in the meantime by Islamabad to the satisfaction of India, US and other countries affected by Pakistan’s toxic export of death."

Hoax call during Mumbai siege threatened war on Pakistan
A quote...."7 Dec 2008, 0052 hrs IST -- Reporting from New Delhi and Islamabad, Pakistan -- A hoax caller claiming to be India's foreign minister threatened Pakistan's president with war during the final hours of the Mumbai attacks, prompting Islamabad to put its air force on its highest alert for nearly 24 hours, a news report said Saturday." -- Anyone think it was McCain?? See article shown below..... mpg

McCain warns Pakistan of Indian strikes
A quote...."Posted: Dec 07, 2008 at 1303 hrs IST -- Islamabad: US Senator John McCain has said he believes that if Pakistan does not act against individuals and groups linked to the Mumbai Terror attacks, it could be a "matter of days" before India carries out surgical strikes against such elements." -- Boy oh Boy! The US-NRE is sure being obvious about trying to start a war between India and Pakistan....you'd think they'd try to be a tiny bit more subtle about the whole matter. - mpg

Creating an "Arc of Crisis": The Destabilization of the Middle East and Central Asia
A quote...."December 7, 2008 -- The recent attacks in Mumbai, while largely blamed on Pakistan’s state-sponsored militant groups, represent  the latest phase in a far more complex and long-term “strategy of tension” in the region; being employed by the Anglo-American-Israeli Axis to ultimately divide and conquer the Middle East and Central Asia. The aim is destabilization of the region, subversion and acquiescence of the region’s countries, and control of its economies, all in the name of preserving the West’s hegemony over the “Arc of Crisis.”

Pakistan ex-spy chief: U.S. wants him on terror list
A quote...."Sun Dec 7, 2008 9:21am EST -- ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A former head of the Pakistani military's Inter-Services Intelligence agency said Sunday the United States wants him on a U.N. list of people and organizations linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban. -- Long retired, Lieutenant-General Hamid Gul told Reuters the U.S. moves against him began several weeks ago, pre-dating the latest controversy surrounding the ISI."

Muslims condemn terror, say India's their motherland
A quote...."Sun, Dec 07, 2008 at 00:39 -- "Persons believing in Islam and committing atrocities and killing other people are not following the teachings of Islam," says Wasi Ahmad Nomani, senior advocate of Supreme Court. -- A cross section of the community believes that the larger purpose behind the 26/11 strikes was to trigger communal violence. And so they feel Muslims have a greater responsibility now to reach out to people from other communities." -- bold by website editor

Pakistan forces takes over Lashkar camp: Witnesses
A quote...."Islamabad: Pakistani security forces took over a camp used by Lashkar-e-Toiba militants in Pakistani Kashmir on Sunday, a witness and an official from a charity linked to Lashkar said. -- "This happened this afternoon, security forces took over the camp," said an official with the Jamaat-ud-Dawa charity."

End - The Mumbia Attack - 9 Articles - Sunday - [ Day 11 ] ========== ========== ========== ====

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Closet Conservatives, Come on Out
Must Read -- A quote...."For those of you out there who are actively trying to squelch any critique of our new president elects’ campaign promise reversals, do us all a favor and quit lying to yourselves, and us, in the process. You know I might not agree with the policies of the right-wing fundamentalists out there, but I have recently come to understand that I at least have more respect for them than I do for you pseudo-liberals. They, at least, have the balls to call themselves what they are; conservatives  [They aren't really - but that's another issue.  Just substitute "Neocon war profiteer" wherever you see the word conservative. - mpg]. You should do the same. -- Because you are certainly not “liberals” and you definitely are not “progressive” by any stretch of the imagination. So take a look in the mirror,  dust off the old “Support the Troops” magnet for your Hybrid SUV, and come out the conservative closet. The sunlight will do you some good."

Sarkozy, War and the Grandeur of La Douce France
Must Read - A quote...."Today, President Sarkozy endorses war against Iran. He supports the US anti-Iran position, I believe, for France’s grandeur and personal gain. His un-French-like, pro-American sentiments induce him also to imitation of and aspirations for the personal power of American presidents. Oh, how Sarkozy will miss hanging out around Texas ranches! Today, until he gets a handle on Obama, Sarko will have to be content with aping American ways in New York City. -- The latter may not be an easy task. I can’t help but wonder what he makes of—if anything—of Russian extreme nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s far-fetched affirmation that Obama will be the Gorbachev of America! An ironic fringe judgment, however, for Obama is already back-tracking. And Sarkozy is arriving late to join in the international spoils system that once reigned in America. For Sarkozy it’s like getting to the party when most of the guests are going out the side door. For the reality is his model America is on the wane."

Good Evening America. We should have a little chat
Video - Fun little clip from the movie "V".  -- This one's also a lot of fun...9-11 Vendetta ,Past, Present & Future... - Alt - (YouTube - 7 min 15 sec - September 06, 2006) - mpg

Honeymoans From the Left
A quote...."A month after he won the White House Barack Obama is drawing a chorus of approval from conservatives who spent most of this year denouncing him as a man of the extreme left. “Reassuring”, says Karl Rove, of Obama’s cabinet selections. Max Boot, a rabid right-wing commentator, confesses, "I am gobsmacked by these appointments, most of which could just as easily have come from a President McCain." In Murdoch’s Weekly Standard, mouthpiece of the neocons, Michael Goldfarb reviewed Obama’s appointments and declared that he sees “nothing that represents a drastic change in how Washington does business. The expectation is that Obama is set to continue the course set by Bush in his second term."

Analysis: Campaign differences aside, Obama's defense agenda similar to Bush's Pentagon chief
A quote...."For a Democrat whose opposition to the Iraq war was a campaign centerpiece, President-elect Barack Obama is remarkably in sync with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on many core defense and national security issues — even Iraq."

Merchants of Death: Exposing Corporate Financed Holocaust in Africa
A quote...."War in Congo has again been splashed across world headlines and the same old clichés about violence and suffering are repackaged and rebroadcast as "news". Meanwhile, early indications out of America are that President-elect Barack Obama will assemble a foreign policy-team primed for business as usual."

Barack, I'm Going to Assume 'Change' Means Banning All Domestic Production of Cluster Bomb Munitions?  - Hah!
A quote...."I know it’s going to be hard Barack I know you’re sold out to Raytheon and Lockheed Martin (and other such organizations all working for change), but maybe a pang of conscience will force you to do the right thing in this case (if in fact you have a conscience, which with each passing day seems less and less likely!)."
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The GOP --a Parasite That Murdered Its Host
A quote...."Only the GOP in America or the Nazi party in Germany could have destroyed a nation so efficiently and have the nerve to brag about it. Now, as we prepare to witness a collapse not seen since that of Rome, we conclude that Bush Jr finished the job begun by Reagan, that is the economic destruction of the United States --its economy, its education, its source of wealth, its future, its security!"

US Soldier Seeks Political Asylum in Germany
Special Note - A quote...."André Shepherd is the first American GI to have applied for political asylum in Germany. Shepherd, who deserted to avoid going back to fight in Iraq, argues that the war there is in violation of international law."

Iraqis have strong opinions about U.S.
A quote...."BAGHDAD - It shouldn't surprise anyone that Iraqis are particularly opinionated about the United States. I think the root of the variety of views you hear is that no one is really sure why the United States came in the first place. They're doubtful that it was an idealistic push to topple a dictator and spread democracy. So they try to follow the  money. By that reasoning, the United State's perceived lack of planning to govern Iraq was, in fact, the plan all along. Here are some of the comments I've heard in interviews or passing conversations: - There are 18 ministries and the only one you protected was the Oil Ministry. Why?"

Referendum seen as way to "correct" U.S.: Iraq pact
A quote...."After bitter debate, the deal passed parliament last month, but some politicians agreed to support the pact only after a referendum on the deal was scheduled for next summer. -- How exactly the referendum will work is an open question, but Hashemi said its result will be decisive. -- "If the Iraqi people reject the pact in the referendum ... the government of Iraq will be committed, according to the law, to the result of the referendum and will convey this will to the American administration. The pact will be annulled," he said. -- bold by webstite editor

Kurds will not export oil unless they rescind deals with foreign firms, oil minster says
A quote...."Kurds will not be allowed to export oil extracted from their fields unless they meet central government conditions on signing of oil deals, Oil Minister Hussain Shahristani said In a press conference in Baghdad, Shahristani reiterated his government’s stand that the 17 contracts the Kurds have signed with foreign oil firms were illegal. He said signing of oil contracts is a prerogative of the central government in Baghdad."

One thriving sector: The business of war
A quote...."SOUTH NASHUA, N.H. - Across the nation, companies are lopping off hundreds of thousands of jobs, retailers are shuttering stores, and automakers are tottering on the edge of bankruptcy. But here in the Merrimack River Valley, and over the state line at several industrial sites around Massachusetts, defense contractor BAE Systems is hoisting "Help Wanted" signs."

Arms trade a double-edged sword for Israel
A quote...."It’s one of the perils of the arms trade which humiliates governments and outrages anti-war activists. A political nightmare, and potential humanitarian one, where a country sells weapons to an ally - later to find those same arms being used against it after the two countries fall out. -- Despite the risks, the arms trade is a key part of many leading countries’ economies. The profits are huge, the stakes high. But the dangers of something going wrong are even bigger."

Can Pentagon's Stop-Loss Be Stopped?
What!  Are they kidding!  The DoD and the MIC need all those biological components to operate their very advanced, and highly profitable, weapons systems.  Besides those bio-components are cheap, expendable and most importantly, easily replaced from the teeming multitudes that will be created from this current economic downturn. - mpg -- A quote...."The military returns troops to war zones after they've completed their tours, even after they've left active duty." - bold by website editor

Why Are They Dying? Shambles in Afghanistan
A quote...."There can be few things more shameful or degrading for a head of state to have to admit than "I wish I could intercept the [US] planes that are going to bomb Afghan villages, but that's not in my hands." But Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai was forced to say this last week. In 2008, so far, at least 190 Afghan civilians have been killed by air strikes; about the same number as died in the atrocious slaughter in Mumbai. But there haven't been any protests about the killing of civilians in Afghanistan, except by Afghans, of course. But who listens to Afghans?"

Militants Torch Over 160 Vehicles Bound for Afghanistan
A quote...."Early this morning, an estimated 300 militants used a rocket-propelled grenade to flatten the gates of the Port World Logistic Terminal compound outside of Peshawar, and by the time they left a guard was dead and 106 vehicles had been torched, mostly humvees bound for US forces in Afghanistan.  --  Shortly afterwards, the nearby Faisal depot was attacked, destroying another 60 vehicles bound for Afghanistan. It is unclear if the same group attacked both compounds."

Taliban destroys supply trucks - More on the Taliban attack.
Related Article - A quote...."Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan -- In one of the largest and most brazen attacks of its kind, suspected Taliban insurgents with heavy weapons attacked two truck stops in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, destroying more than 150 vehicles carrying supplies bound for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan."

The European Parliament suspends the vote on the upgrade of EU – Israel relations
A quote...."Gaza, December 5, 2008, (Ramattan)- The European Parliament  (EP) on Thursday postponed the  vote on the proposal by the EU Commission and Council for the draft recommendation to conclude a Protocol to the EU-Israel Association Agreement and on the general principles governing the State of Israel's participation in Community programmes."

Are the Israelis Worthy and Capable of Having a State of Their Own?
A quote...."GAZA - The Israelis have been given the green light to starve 1.5 milj. Palestinians to death.First, the US legitimation of Zionism. The Israeli blockade of Gaza Strip is the result of US unconditional moral and financial support to Israel.Billions in US tax money have been payed out through many years to the Zionist state, not to forget high tech weapon technology give away, without preconditions.The second mistake the failor of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The PLO extension of its careless mistakes 15 years ago,the unconditional recognition of Israel."

The 13th Circle: Somalia's Hell and the Triumph of Militarism
Must Read - A quote...."As you might expect, the New York Times buries the lede in its latest story about Somalia, but surprisingly, the general outlines of the truth of the rapidly collapsing situation on this third front in the "War on Terror" can be gleaned from the piece. -- Some 14 paragraphs into the story, Establishment water-carrier Jeffrey Gettleman finally gets down to the heart of the matter, and, to his credit, delivers an admirably succinct précis of the latest imperial flameout:"

Greece Riots: Anti-Police Violence Spreads Across Athens (VIDEO)
A quote...."ATHENS, Greece — Rioters rampaged through Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki Sunday, hurling Molotov cocktails, burning stores and blocking city streets with flaming barricades after protests against the fatal police shooting of a teenager erupted into chaos. -- Youths wearing hoods smashed storefronts and cars in Athens. Riot police responded with tear gas while the fire department rushed to extinguish blazes. Several bank branches, stores and at least one building were on fire on a major street leading to the capital's police headquarters. Clashes also broke out near Parliament."

Admirals walk the plank after Iranian humiliation
A quote...."THE Royal Navy has been accused of carrying out a discreet purge of senior figures involved in the fiasco over the arrest by Iranian Revolutionary Guards of 15 British sailors and Marines. -- Those involved in the navy’s humiliation have left their high-profile jobs as part of an attempt, it is claimed, to sweep away any reminder of the debacle, regarded as one of the biggest embarrassments to befall the fleet since Admiral Byng failed to relieve Minorca in 1756. He was executed for his incompetence. -- Victims include two vice-admirals and the captain of the ship on which the boat crews served. A senior official involved in the “spin” operation that followed their return to Britain has left the Ministry of Defence (MoD)."

Iran tests new anti-ship missile in Gulf of Oman - TV
A quote...."TEHRAN, December 7 (RIA Novosti) - Iran has test-launched a new anti-ship missile as part of large-scale naval exercises in the Gulf of Oman, Iranian television said on Sunday. - The new missile, called Nasr-2 (Victory-2), was launched on Saturday in the Gulf of Oman close to the border with Pakistan. The missile, developed by the Iranian defense ministry's specialists, was launched from a warship and hit the target at a distance of 30 km (19 miles), the Iranian television said."

Leader: Correa can defend Ecuador rights
A quote...."The Leader of the Islamic Revolution says Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has great potentials to defend the rights of his nation. In a Sunday meeting with the visiting president, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the 'energetic' Correa could pave the way for the progress of Ecuador."

Iran, Ecuador Decide to Open Embassies
A quote...."TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Ecuadorian counterpart Rafael Correa decided during a meeting here yesterday to open embassies in Tehran and Quito."
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The Radicalization Of An American Prisoner - For those who will become prisoners - mpg
Must Read - A quote...."December 05, 2008 "Information Clearinghouse" --- During a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2006, high- ranking F.B.I. officials testified that the Bureau considered U.S. prisons to be "fertile grounds for extremists", and that they were in the process of developing "threat assessments" for those individuals who may have become "radicalized" during their incarceration. -- Listening to those officials postulate a variety of theories as to the perceived radicalization of American prisoners since 9/11, ranging from a misguided identification with terrorist leaders such as Osama bin Laden, to the radical preachings of jailhouse religious leaders, it became readily apparent that today's F.B.I. is as out of touch with reality as the one headed by J. Edgar Hoover, which for decades denied the existence of the mafia."

Bush Bailout for Rumsfeld, Torturers Might Be Next: Ann Woolner - For those who won't become prisoners
Must Read - A quote..." Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- The season of forgiveness is here, and federal felons everywhere are hoping some of it will alight on them. -- The period from about Thanksgiving until precisely noon on Jan. 20, is prime time for pardons in a president’s last term."

CIA ‘lied’ over fatal attack on missionary plane
A quote...."FOR Jim and Veronica Bowers and their two small children, the flight up the Amazon in a single-engined Cessna float plane should have been a routine return to the remote house-boat where the family lived during missionary work with Indian tribes."

Children 'executed' in 1950 South Korean killings
A quote...."Government investigators digging into the grim hidden history of mass political executions in South Korea have confirmed that dozens of children were among many thousands shot by their own government early in the Korean War."

Drawing the Future from the Past
A quote...."The bombing was relentless. From 1964 to 1973, the United States dropped more than 2 million tons of ordnance on Laos. That's a planeload of bombs every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years. Laos has the unfortunate distinction of being the most heavily bombed country in the history of the world." -- also posted at ICH & CommonDreams

9/11 probers skipped key forensic tests
Special Note - A quote...."Federal scientists ruled out controlled demolitions of three World Trade Center towers but declined to perform routine tests on soil and debris for traces of explosives or incendiaries, a review of National Institute of Standards and Technology publications shows. -- The agency, which spent $16 million on its inquiry into the Sept. 11, 2001, collapses, said such tests weren't needed because computer simulations and other considerations had shown that controlled demolitions were improbable." -- For more on this issue see....9/11 - WTC7

FBI was told to blame Anthrax scare on Al Qaeda by White House officials
Special Note - A quote...."WASHINGTON - In the immediate aftermath of the 2001 anthrax attacks, White House officials repeatedly pressed FBI Director Robert Mueller to prove it was a second-wave assault by Al Qaeda, but investigators ruled that out, the Daily News has learned. -- After the Oct. 5, 2001, death from anthrax exposure of Sun photo editor Robert Stevens, Mueller was "beaten up" during President Bush's morning intelligence briefings for not producing proof the killer spores were the handiwork of terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden, according to a former aide."
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The Rise of the 'Booboisie'
Book Review - Special Note -- Some quote...."HONG KONG - In the wake of a historic presidential election that has restored much of the world's faith in American democracy, there could there no better time to resurrect America's most acerbic critic of the 20th century, H L Mencken, who would be singularly unimpressed by Barack Obama's triumph over John McCain."

"What if one of today's leading American newspaper columnists or television commentators were to compare democratic leaders unfavorably to despots of the past and America's vote-seeking pols to "the chorus girl who, in order to get her humble job, has to admit the manager to her person"? The outrage would be such that the unfortunate pundit
would almost certainly lose his or her job."

"... the true charm of democracy is not for the democrat but for the spectator. The spectator, it seems to me, is favored with a show of the first cut and caliber. Try to imagine anything more heroically absurd! What grotesque false pretences! What a parade of obvious imbecilities! What a welter of fraud! But is fraud unamusing? Then I retire forthwith as a psychologist. The fraud of democracy, I contend, is more amusing than any other - more amusing even, and by miles, than the fraud of religion."

"Mencken has been denounced as a racist and an anti-Semite, and a robust scholarly debate continues about these charges. Meanwhile, however, it is worth noting that, while Mencken stands guilty of many disparaging and insulting remarks against blacks and Jews, he was equally contemptuous of every other ethnic group in America. This misanthrope's contempt was vast enough to cover all humankind - that should be the real subject of debate."
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FORD : Fix Or Repair Daily, not just a joke anymore, a future business plan.
Special Note -- A quote...."Boy, oh, boy, we know now, after a year, that we are in a recession and we know that the reason for the war was questionable. -- Based upon scientific studies, I don’t think Americans will know that it is the holiday season until maybe next Holiday Season. The systems that would normally inform us that something is just not right are just not right lately. I am calling this time of year, until farther notice; “The Holiday Session” and not Season. Season implies that there is flavor in it and right now all we have is a bland tastelessness in our mouths."

Angry Laid-Off Workers Occupy Factory in Chicago
A quote...."CHICAGO - Workers who got three days' notice that their factory was shutting its doors have occupied the building and say they won't go home without assurances they'll get severance and vacation pay. --  About 250 union workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors plant in shifts Saturday while union leaders outside criticized a Wall Street bailout they say is leaving laborers behind."

Making a new New Deal: Sitdown Strike in Chicago
Related Article -- A quote...."Much has been made about the prospect that Barack Obama's presidency might, due to economic necessity and the president-elect's interventionist inclinations, be a reprise of the New Deal era. -- But there will be no "new New Deal" if Americans simply look to Obama to lead them out of the domestic quagmire into which Bill Clinton and George Bush led the country with a toxic blend of free-trade absolutism, banking deregulation and disdain for industrial policy. Just as Roosevelt needed mass movements and militancy as an excuse to talk Washington stalwarts into accepting radical shifts in the economic order, so Obama will need to be able to point to some turbulence at the grassroots. -- And so he may have it."  -- also posted at CommonDreams

Unemployed and hungry in the US
Video - A quote...."The more than 1.2 million jobs lost over the past 3 months, and the 11th straight month of job losses, bring the unemployment rate to 6.7 per cent, the highest in 15 years. Also this week the Department of Agriculture released figures that show food stamp beneficiaries increased by 17 percent in the past year. That’s more than 31.6 million or 1 out of every 10 people in the US receiving food stamps or taking part in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. TRNN spoke Dedrick Muhammad of the Institute for Policy Studies. Muhammad says that 6.7 percent is not the true unemployment number because it does not include the underemployed and those who have stopped looking for work."

Fears of a million layoffs a month in corporate America
Special Note - Theory / Prediction -- A quote...."Graham Turner, of consultancy GFC Economics, says the rising cost of corporate debt is now flashing a red warning signal that far worse is to come over the next few months and job losses are heading for levels last seen in the 1930s Great Depression. -- Corporate bond yields have rocketed since the credit crisis began as investors flee risky assets in search of safe havens such as US Treasuries. That effectively means many firms are being forced to pay eye-watering interest rates to borrow funds. -- Turner says when the gap between the yield on high-risk company bonds and US Treasuries widens sharply, unemployment tends to shoot up - and current credit conditions are pointing to a doubling in the pace of layoffs, to more than a million workers a month, by spring. -- 'The correlation is holding up all too well,' he said. 'It's very disconcerting.'" - bold by webstie editor

Company Crashes Set to Hit Record Next Year
A quote...."December 07, 2008 "FT Times" --- - Record numbers of companies will go bankrupt next year with 200,000 insolvencies in Europe alone and "an explosion" of failed businesses in the US, according to the world's largest credit insurer. -- The US will see 62,000 companies go bust next year, compared with 42,000 this year and 28,000 last year, says a report by Euler Hermes, part of German insurer Allianz. -- The absolute numbers, however, pale in comparison with the figures from western Europe, where the larger number of small companies mean insolvencies are expected to rise by a third from 149,000 last year to."

State budget gaps balloon to $97 billion
A quote...."Still reeling from high gas prices this summer and plummeting retirement savings this fall, Americans will soon be feeling the pinch in other ways — from increased tuition to potentially higher taxes, as states try to close some $97 billion in budget gaps over the next two years."
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Muscovites enjoy hottest ever winter
A quote..."Russian winters are considered among the world’s coldest – but that image could be fading on a weekend which saw another seasonal record temperature in the country’s capital. The traditional icy chill has been replaced by a comfortable heat, as Moscow enjoyed a relatively balmy 9.4 Celsius."

Saturday December 6th 2008

No posts, computer maintenance. - mpg

Friday December 5th 2008

A Loud Silence
Must Read - A quote...."That's the response from the "antiwar" wing of the Democratic party to Obama's Iraq sellout. -- Is it really possible that President-elect Barack Obama intends to break his campaign promise to "end the war" in Iraq, and keep US troops in that country well beyond the sixteen month timetable for withdrawal he advocated during the campaign? -- The answer, according to the New York Times, is a fairly certain yes:" -- also posted at LewRockwell

The Mumbia Attack - 7 Articles - Friday - [ Day 10 ] ========== ========== ========== ====

Police: Mumbai gunman's mobile SIM card possibly from New Jersey
A quote...."The sole Mumbai gunman to be taken alive has said he was paid 150,000 Pakistani rupees – about £1,300 or $1,900 – for his part in the attacks that killed nearly 200 people, according to police. -- "He has said the payment was 1.5 lakhs (150,000) of Pakistani rupees," Rakesh Maria, the joint commissioner of Mumbai police, who is one of the interrogators questioning Azam Amir Kasab, told The Times. -- Police are also investigating a possible link to the United States – a mobile SIM card found with the terrorists which possibly came from New Jersey. "Nothing is confirmed, but we are looking at this and have made enquiries with mobile operators," Mr Maria said." -- bold by website editor

Mumbai attacks: Indian operative 'helped Pakistani militants'
A quote...."Last Updated: 2:46PM GMT 05 Dec 2008 -- A Pakistani militant group used an Indian operative as far back as 2007 to scout targets for the elaborate plot against India's financial capital, authorities have said. The discovery is a blow to Indian officials who have blamed the deadly attacks entirely on Pakistani extremists."

Details emerge on CIA terror plot warnings
Special Note -- A quote...."MUMBAI: Indian intelligence sources have confirmed to The Hindu that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) delivered two warnings of an impending terror attack on Mumbai in September. The first one was delivered through the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) on September 18. The sources said the information was of a general nature, suggesting that the Lashkar-e-Taiba was planning to attack Mumbai. -- The sources said that on September 24, the CIA provided further details in response to a request from the RAW. In this second warning, the U.S. agency expressly stated that the Lashkar was planning an attack on targets where large numbers of foreigners were present, including the Taj Mahal hotel."

Mumbai: Was it Indeed an Islamic Terror Attack? Were Muslims even Involved?
A quote...."Friday, December 5, 2008 at 12:04AM -- If the Mumbai terrorists' background was consistent with the single captured survivor, then the terrorist actions were not performed by Muslims, but by mercenaries, that is soldiers of fortune, hired criminals, paid to murder and terrorize, for non-religious reasons, and funded by unknown criminal gangs for purposes also unknown. The obvious motivation of such gangs might be to encourage political instability in the region, and heighten military and diplomatic pressure on the government of Pakistan. This certainly suggests that the criminal gangs who hired the mercenary terrorists in Mumbai, were like their soldiers, motivated also by financial gain, as criminal gangs tend to be so engaged, and that the gangs themselves were hired by perhaps non-Pakistani actors, with ambitions for control of the government of Pakistan."

Propaganda Recycled: US Report Blames Pakistan For Future WMD Attack
A quote...."In a blatant effort to bolster the ailing war on terror, a report produced as part of a mandate by the U.S. Congress has concluded that a major terror attack will occur somewhere in the world before 2013 and that the blame will firmly fall at the feet of Pakistan." -- For more on this issue see....It Will Happen Every Single Time - 01-01-08 - mpg

US Accuses Retired ISI Officials in Mumbai Attack
A quote...."The United States has reportedly submitted a list of four former high-ranking officials in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Agency to the United Nations to be added to the UN Security Council’s list of international terrorists. The move comes after claims that US intelligence agencies determined former ISI officials trained the Mumbai attackers. -- Though neither the US or UN have yet revealed the names on the list, former ISI chief Lieutenant General Hamid Gul confirmed that he was included on the list. The retired General Gul was a backer of the anti-Soviet insurgency in Afghanistan, and openly backed separatist factions in India during his tenure at the ISI. He has also been an outspoken critic of America’s presence in the region, calling for the Muslim world to “stand united to confront the US in its so-called war against terror.” -- The US was quick to point out that it had no “specific links” between the Mumbai attacks and the Pakistani government. Still, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has pressured Pakistan to take “responsibility” for dealing with the attackers." -- bold by website editor

Indian media under fire for Mumbai attacks coverage
A quote...." Ankara - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday refused to deny reports that the attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai were carried out by people operating from Pakistan. -- 'Pakistan has always discouraged, and our position that we are the victims of terrorism. Pakistan is currently doing its own internal investigation and it is waiting for concrete proof,' Zardari said."

End - The Mumbia Attack - 7 Articles - Friday - [ Day 10 ] ========== ========== ========== ====

Applying the Rule of Law to All Heads of State
A quote...."JURIST Guest Columnist Peter Erlinder of William Mitchell College of Law, says that the recent conviction of “Chuckie" Taylor suggests that President-elect Obama has a chance to demonstrate, by example, what the Rule of Law and “equality before the law,” means to the new administration…and to him..." -- also posted CommonDreams

Harper's Coup; Power Grab in Ottawa
A quote...."December 05, 2008 "Information Clearinghouse" ---On Thursday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper suspended Canada's parliament to avoid a challenge from opposition parties that were planning to oust him from power. The 3-party coalition--the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois---decided to remove Harper because of his strong opposition to a stimulus package that was designed to minimize the effects of the financial crisis. They also opposed his "proposed elimination of subsidies for political parties, a three-year ban on the right of civil servants to strike, and limits on the ability of women to sue for pay equity." Governor General Michaelle Jean helped Harper to hang on by using her constitutional authority to close the legislature for seven weeks. Now the country is in a furor." -- For more on this issue see....White Man's Burden - 12-20-06 - mpg

Justices to Decide Legality of Indefinite Detention
A quote...."The Supreme Court said yesterday it will decide whether the president may order the indefinite detention of suspects living lawfully in the United States, one of the broadest claims of executive power the Bush administration has asserted in the nation's anti-terrorism efforts."

AP Exclusive: Pentagon to recruit aliens on visas
It's funny, the Roman Empire used to do the exact same thing to recruit their mercenaries, offer them a chance for citizenship in the Empire if they killed for the Empire. - mpg -- A quote...."Struggling to find enough doctors, nurses and linguists for the war effort, the Pentagon will temporarily recruit foreigners who have been living in the United States on student and work visas, or with refugee or political asylum status."

U.S. Collective Dictatorship Enlarges
Special Note -- A quote...."To understand what is happening now in the U.S., it is useful to compare the parallel developments that occurred in Nazi Germany. The German central bank, the Reichsbank, was far more restricted by law (before 1939) than our central bank, the Federal Reserve (Fed) in the kinds and amounts of loans it could make. The Fed, in this sense, is far more powerful than the Reichsbank was before 1939. The Reichsbank was, like the Fed, independent of the government. The German government could not order it to make loans to the government, for example. This situation changed in 1939 when the Nazi government needed more funds to finance its armament build-up. At that point, the government basically absorbed the Reichsbank."

LBJ Tapes Contain Unexploded Bombshells -- Lies, Treason and Perhaps Tens of Thousands of Lives Lost @ BzFlsh
A quote...."Historians and investigative journalists -- even government prosecutors -- need to get cracking to explain and connect the dots from new details coming out in just-released recordings from both the Johnson and Nixon presidencies. LBJ was furious with Nixon, audiotapes of telephone conversations now show, over the likelihood that Nixon put politics first ahead of bringing the Vietnam war to a swift conclusion in 1968. As LBJ told Senate Republican leader Everett Dirksen, "This is treason."

Iraqi Parliament Criticizes Shell Natural Gas Deal
A quote...."The Iraqi Parliament recently criticized the Oil Ministry’s decision to sign a natural gas deal with Royal Dutch Shell. The Oil and Gas Committee said that the Oil Ministry had mishandled its business with Shell to develop natural gas that is produced from Basra’s oil fields. The committee said that the negotiations lacked transparency, would give Shell a 25-year monopoly, and was therefore against the national interests of the country. They suggested that the government renegotiate the agreement. The Oil Ministry responded by saying that there was nothing wrong with their talks with Shell, and that everything was legal." -- Good for the Iraqis, NOBODY should be forced to do a deal under the barral of a gun. - mpg

Indian prime minister says India and Russia sign a civilian nuclear agreement
A quote...."India's prime minister says India and Russia have signed a nuclear deal that is expected to see Russia build four nuclear reactors for power-starved India."
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The liquidity trap -- Commentary: Financial engineering seems worse than the alternative
Special Note - A quote...."People used to boast about hot stocks they owned. Now they crow about how much of their money is in cash. Those holding cash have been richly rewarded with no losses and opportunities to buy assets (condos and equities) at huge discounts."

Did December 2nd Mark the Beginning of the End for Paper Currencies?
A quote...."Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Antal E. Fekete says that December 2nd marked the beginning of the end for paper currencies and wealth based on such currencies:  ---  "It is no exaggeration to say that this event will trigger a tsunami wiping out the prosperity of the world."  ---  What's he babbling on about? Well, since at least 1972, the price of gold futures has been higher than the spot price of gold - a condition called "contango" by futures traders. But on December 2nd, for pretty much the first time ever, the futures price went below the spot price - what futures traders call "backwardation" - and has stayed there for several days. Fekete argues that this means that gold owners are hoarding their gold and simply won't sell, because (1) they're not confident that they'll be able to buy it back in the future, and (2) they have lost all faith in paper currency. He writes:"

Payrolls plunge by stunning 533,000 in November
Chart -- Website Editor's Note: Keep in mind the jobless rate is a lagging indicator  for the stock market, but what many people may not realize is that these numbers might look good, perhaps really good, by next year..... it's something to think about.- mpg -- A quote...."WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. nonfarm payrolls plunged by an astonishing 533,000 in November -- the worst job loss in 34 years -- the Labor Department reported Friday."

Mortgage Delinquencies, Foreclosures Rise to Record (Update3)
A quote...."Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- One in 10 American homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments or were in foreclosure during the third quarter as the world’s largest economy shed jobs and real estate prices tumbled."

1 in 10 homeowners behind on mortgage payments, or in foreclosure...
A quote...."One in 10 American homeowners fell behind on mortgage payments or were in foreclosure during the third quarter as the world’s largest economy shed jobs and real estate prices tumbled."

Some US bank bailout holdings down $9 billion
A quote...."The government mounted a vigorous defense Friday of its massive bank bailout, responding to an Associated Press analysis showing that stock in the program intended to eventually earn taxpayers a profit has lost about one-third of its value -- nearly $9 billion -- in barely one month. -- Shares in virtually every bank that received federal money have remained below the prices the government negotiated."

FDIC shuts failed bank in Georgia
A quote...."WASHINGTON (AP) -- Regulators on Friday shut down First Georgia Community Bank, the 23rd U.S. bank failure this year."

Chrysler hires law firm as bankruptcy counsel: report
Full quote...."(Reuters) - Chrysler has hired Jones Day law firm as its bankruptcy counsel, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday."

California Eyes IOUs for Second Time Since Depression (Update1)
A quote...."Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) -- California, the world’s eighth-largest economy, may pay vendors with IOUs for only the second time since the Great Depression, State Finance Director Mike Genest said." -- Now we're gonna have a market in California IOU's, no doubt they'll set up some sort of exchange to trade them.  California should just say they're good for legal tender and compete with the Fed..... or is that called counterfeiting?
Thursday December 4th 2008 - links page

The Mumbia Attack - 11 Articles - Thursday - [ Day 9 ] ========== ========== ========== ====
    
The Mumbai Attacks: More Than Meets The Eye  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/hammond041208.htm
Must Read - A quote...."04 December, 2008 -- Details have emerged regarding who was responsible for the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, with the evidence pointing to the Pakistani-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). But the trail doesn't end there. -- Indications of a coming attack were reportedly received by intelligence agencies well in advance. US signals intelligence (SIGINT) picked up a spike in “chatter” indicating something was brewing, which was supported by information from assets in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Some of the information that was received by US intelligence was passed on to India as early as September."
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“India’s 9/11”:Perils In Parallels  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/syed041208.htm
Special Note -- A quote...."04 December, 2008 -- A reading of the western press, gives the impression that India is about to bomb Pakistan, home to the “Islamic Bomb.” While reading the Indian press, one finds that there are many sane Indians who are questioning the lethargy of Indian Government and challenging the fundamentalist Hindutva leadership. The former is still trying to figure out who to blame and the latter wants to rush and unleash the “Hindu Bomb.” -- We must not forget that a recent train bombing being assigned to “Pakistani agents” was indeed the work of a serving Indian army officer and his comrades." -- bold by webstie editor
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Financing terror: the Lashkar and beyond  ---  http://blogs.thehindu.com/delhi/?p=7941
Special Note -- A quote...."Dec 5th, 2008  -- The Wahabi brand of Sunni Islam that the Lashkar owes allegiance to is an ultra- conservative version founded in the 18th century in Saudi Arabia by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792). The Al-Saud dynasty that rules Saudi Arabia professes the Wahabi faith. Fuelled by oil money, and to cloak their own lavish lifestyles, the rulers pump in money for Wahabi missionary activity all over the world. According to The New Yorker’s investigative journalist Seymore Hersh, the Saud regime is “increasingly corrupt, alienated from the country’s religious rank and file, and so weakened and frightened that it has brokered its future by channeling hundreds of millions of dollars in what amounts to protection money to fundamentalist groups that wish to overthrow it.” This is a practice that has been referred to as “Petro-Islam.” Muslim Brotherhood chapters all over the world have also been allegedly helped in a similar manner."
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LaRouche Asks: Will the Saudi Sponsored Terrorists Find Themselves In Hot Water Without Bush
  ---  http://larouchepac.com/news/2008/12/04/larouche-asks-will-saudi-sponsored-terrorists-find-themselve.html
A quote...."December 4, 2008 (LPAC)--The U.S. Treasury Department has exhaustive evidence about Saudi Arabian government financing of radical Islamic networks of terrorists, including those involved in the attacks last week in Mumbai, India, reported well-informed U.S. intelligence sources. But the Saudis are still getting "special treatment," despite this evidence, including information that ties the training camps of the Lashkar e-Toiba to Saudi funding in Pakistan. -- In the wake of the Mumbai attack, Lyndon LaRouche asked, ``Will the Saudi sponsored terrorists find themselves in hot water, now that George W. Bush is leaving office?''
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Washington exploits Mumbai attack to promote “war on terror”  ---  http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m49332&s1=h1
A quote...."US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to New Delhi Wednesday, ostensibly to deliver US condolences for the 173 people killed in the terrorist attacks that rocked Mumbai last week and express solidarity with the people of India."
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Mumbai after-shocks rattle Pakistan  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/JL05Df01.html
A quote...."Dec 5, 2008 -- KARACHI - Ten young men from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) were sent on a "sacrificial" mission to Mumbai. Nine of them were killed - as they were expected to be - in battles with Indian security forces during their three-day rampage last week."
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Is Pakistan to Blame? Mumbai Terror Attacks  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/khan12022008.html
A quote...."December 2, 2008 -- Watch Indian television and Pakistan is decidedly the culprit of the atrocious 26/11 attacks in Mumbai.  Star News projects cartoon images of Muslim terrorists receiving training in Pakistan.  Since 9/11 Bollywood has been successfully perpetuating the image of Muslims as terror-mongers and Star News clips reinforce the stereotype.  Other channels, such as NDTV, however, are less jingoistic and their very balanced Group Editor, Barkha Dutt, is doing her best to assuage knee-jerk reactions against both Muslims within India (about 14% of India’s population) and calls for war on Pakistan."
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US backing for India fuels tensions with Pakistan  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/indi-d05.shtml
A quote...."5 December 2008 -- Far from damping down tensions between India and Pakistan, the visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the two countries in the wake of the Mumbai terrorist attacks has only added more fuel to the fire."
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Pak not involved in Mumbai attacks India gave no evidence, President tells CNN Terror suspects not to be given to Delhi
  ---  http://www.pakobserver.net/200812/04/news/topstories01.asp
A quote...."Thursday, December 4 2008 -- Washington—Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said Islamabad will not hand over suspected terrorists like Dawood Ibrahim, Masood Azhar and Hafiz Muhammad to India, but try and sentence them in its own courts if it had proof against them. -- “I am definitely going to look into all the possibility of any proof that is given to us,” Zardari said on CNN’s “Larry King Live” Tuesday when asked if he was going to comply with India’s demand to hand over some 20 suspected terrorists believed to be living in Pakistan."
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Indian Congress rejects joint probe  ---  http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C12%5C05%5Cstory_5-12-2008_pg1_2
A quote...."Friday, December 05, 2008 -- NEW DELHI: The Indian National Congress has scoffed at Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s idea of a ‘joint India-Pakistan probe’ into the Mumbai terror attacks, describing the suggestion as a ‘cruel joke’. Pakistan was quick to condemn last week’s Mumbai attacks, which left at least 188 people dead, and has offered joint investigations and pledged to take action against any individual or group found involved in the assault."
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US massing aircraft carriers in Arabian Sea Ready to stop [mine laying at] sea by India, Pakistan http://www.pakobserver.net/200812/04/news/topstories02.asp
War Alert - A quote...."Thursday, December 4 2008 -- Islamabad—An Israeli website has reported that the United States has began massing at least three aircraft carriers with strike groups, task forces and nuclear submarines in the Arabian Sea opposite the shores of India, Pakistan and Iran."

End- The Mumbia Attack - 11 Articles - Thursday - [ Day 9 ] ========== ========== ========== ==

Why do Feinstein and Wyden sound much different on the torture issue now?  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/12/04/feinstein/index.html
A quote...."Time constraints prevented me yesterday from writing about Dianne Feinstein's comments concerning torture in yesterday's New York Times, in which the California Senator -- who will replace Jay Rockefeller as Chairperson of the Senate Intelligence Committee -- rather clearly backtracked on what had been her repeated, unequivocal insistence throughout the year that the CIA should be required to comply with the Army Field Manual when interrogating detainees.  But Time's Michael Scherer picked up on the same backtracking and did a very good job of highlighting what appears to be Feinstein's (as well as Ron Wyden's) conspicuous, and rather disturbing, reversals." -- One wonders just how many times the Obamatrolls will have to be betrayed before they finally wake-up? - mpg -- also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/04-2
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Tell Congress and the Obama Administration to Restore The Rule Of Law  ---  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/38082
A quote...."HELP RESTORE WHAT IS BEST ABOUT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
Help restore our Constitution.
Help restore the rule of law. [1]
Help restore our nation’s system of checks and balances.
Help restore our nation’s commitment to our long-term treaty obligations, including the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture. -- For more on this issue see....Thirty Five Acts to Restore Americans' Rights - 11-10-06 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/seventeenacts-blog-mpg-111006
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Retired Generals Press Obama to End Torture  ---  http://news.antiwar.com/2008/12/03/retired-generals-press-obama-to-end-torture/
A quote...."A group of retired US Generals and Admirals, led by former CENTCOM commander General Joseph Hoar, met with Vice President-elect Joe Biden and other senior members of the incoming administration’s transition team today, presenting a laundry list of changes they’d like to see."
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Redefining 'Realism'  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/04-4
A quote...."The war regroups. What if Barack Obama, as he pursues his pragmatic strategy that so far seems to be 10 parts "reassurance" (to the defense and financial establishment) to one part "change," is really finished with his anti-war base for the next four years? -- I don't know if this is true, but his early moves in the game are gasp-inducing in the extreme:"
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Al-Maliki Refuses to Disband Councils; Talabani Invokes Constitutional Court; Basra Province Protests Iraqi Army
  ---  http://www.juancole.com/2008/12/al-maliki-refuses-to-disband-councils.html
A quote...."The Kurdish president of Iraq, Jalal Talabani, is more or less threatening to sue the Shiite prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki. Al-Maliki has been creating Arab tribal councils loyal to himself, including in some areas of mixed Arab and Kurdish populations. Talabani maintains that these "support councils" have a paramilitary dimension and so are essentially militias, and so illegal. Al-Maliki has formally refused to dissolve them, however. He likens them to the "Awakening Councils" created by the US military among Sunni Arabs."
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Iraqi guards open fire as migrants riot about deportation  ---  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article5279431.ece
A quote...."Migrant workers who paid thousands of dollars to get to Iraq, where they hoped to find jobs as contractors, rioted yesterday because they feared they were about to be deported. -- About 450 men were due to be flown out of Iraq last night after spending up to three months inside a warehouse compound near Baghdad airport. Another 500 from Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka will be forced to leave the country in the coming days after the Kuwaiti company that hired them failed to secure enough contract work at dining facilities inside US bases in Iraq."
also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2502-0-3-3--.html
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U.S.-led coalition in Iraq dwindles as allies leave  ---  http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=475160
A quote...."BAGHDAD, Dec 3 (Reuters) - A string of departures by the U.S. military's allies in Iraq is turning into an exodus as violence subsides and the end of a U.N. mandate permitting their deployment to the country approaches."
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Who Are the Taliban? The Afghan War Deciphered  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175010/anand_gopal_making_sense_of_the_taliban
Must Read - A quote...."If there is an exact location marking the West's failures in Afghanistan, it is the modest police checkpoint that sits on the main highway 20 minutes south of Kabul. The post signals the edge of the capital, a city of spectacular tension, blast walls, and standstill traffic. Beyond this point, Kabul's gritty, low-slung buildings and narrow streets give way to a vast plain of serene farmland hemmed in by sandy mountains. In this valley in Logar province, the American-backed government of Afghanistan no longer exists." -- also posted at LewRockwell  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/engelhardt/engelhardt365.html
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Changing the Rules -- The Syria Attack  ---  http://www.counterpunch.org/hallinan12032008.html
A quote...."A little more than a month ago, four U.S. Blackhawk helicopters crossed the Syrian border from Iraq and attacked a civilian farmhouse near the town of al-Sukkariyeh. The U.S. claims the farmhouse was an al-Qaeda way station and the eight men killed during the raid were terrorists, including a major al-Qaeda leader, Abu Ghadiya. The Syrians say the dead—five of them members of the same family—were building a house and had nothing to do with terrorism or al-Qaeda. A BBC report found that most of the dead appeared to be construction workers, including a night watchman, which suggests the raid may have been botched."
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Lebanon's Auon in a Syrian gambit  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JL05Ak03.html
A quote...."Aoun had returned to Lebanon on the offensive, hateful of everyone and everything that kept him in exile for so long, and promising destruction of the existing order and sweet revenge. The Beirut he returned to in 2005 was very different from the war-torn city he had left behind. -- It did not bear the hallmarks of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister assassinated in 2005, yet, all the actors of Beirut 1990 are still there and most of them have been more than troubled by his comeback. -- They were even more alarmed by the 73-year-old's groundbreaking five-day visit to Damascus, which started on December 3. It is purportedly to signal that "the general", as his supporters call him, has finally turned a new page with his former enemies in Damascus."
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Gaza: A bare life zone nearing to a no-life-zone  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4092.shtml
A quote...."With the last Israeli maneuvers of tightening the siege imposed on Gaza, more life necessities vanished. The key power plant shut down 27 days ago resulted in tremendous direful outcomes. More than 75 percent of the Gaza strip faces severe power cuts and some areas are completely plunged into darkness."
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DISARMAMENT:  New Treaty Bans Weapons Victimising Civilians  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44992
A quote...."UNITED NATIONS, Dec 4 (IPS) - When the United Nations talks of "Israeli-occupied territories", the conventional definition is that these disputed lands include the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights -- all of them annexed after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. -- But to most Lebanese, there are border villages inside southern Lebanon that are virtually "no-man's land" because of the myriads of cluster bombs air-dropped by Israel during its four-week conflict with the Islamic militant organisation Hezbollah in 2006."
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Kidnapped At Gunpoint And Deported By Israeli Forces: And She Will Return  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/fleming041208.htm
A quote...."On November 18, 2008, Darlene Wallach of California was kidnapped at gunpoint by Israeli forces and deported to New York City on Thanksgiving Day. She arrived without money, passport, cell phone, warm winter clothes and had no way of contacting her family and friends in California, London, or Cyprus."
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Ukraine and Georgia: Entry into NATO Put Off Indefinitely  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11277
A quote...."NATO ministers in Brussels have decided to ignore US wishes and to delay the admission of Ukraine and of Georgia in effect indefinitely in what the Washington Administration is sheepishly trying to claim is a positive ‘compromise.’ The decision, following EU member state alarm last August over the prospect of European states having to go to war at some point against Russia over an incalculable despot in the Caucasus or in Kiev who decided to provoke Moscow to react, was simply too much."
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NATO Backs Missile Shield Over Russian Protest  ---  http://news.antiwar.com/2008/12/03/nato-backs-missile-shield-over-russian-protest/
A quote...."NATO foreign ministers today praised America’s planned missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic as making a “substantial contribution” to protecting Europe from long-range ballistic missiles."
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Russia may lease nuclear subs to India  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/russia-may-lease-nuclear-subs-to-india.html
A quote...."Russia may lease out nuclear- powered submarines to India, President Dmitry Medvedev was quoted on Thursday as saying. Russia has a large fleet of nuclear-powered but conventionally armed submarines besides its force of strategic nuclear-armed vessels. Medvedev appeared to be referring to the former in an interview with Indian journalists."
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Crisis-torn Canada suspends parliament  ---  http://rawstory.com/news/afp/Crisis_torn_Canada_suspends_parliam_12042008.html
A quote...."Canada's crisis-torn parliament was suspended Thursday in a move which helped Prime Minister Stephen Harper block an opposition bid to topple his government and take over without fresh elections."
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Bush’s revenge on the Sandinista movement  ---  http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2008/diciembre/juev4/nicaragua.html
A quote...."THE Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) continues to be a real specter and a feverish, sick obsession for U.S. imperialism. Since its beginnings, it has been the most consistent political force in Nicaragua to confront and expose Yankee domination and stand up for sovereignty and social justice in that impoverished and plundered country."
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From The Mouths Of Terrorists: The Poisonous Truth  ---  http://winterpatriot.blogspot.com/2008/12/from-mouths-of-terrorists-poisonous.html
Special Note - Some quotes...."Two weeks ago we were talking about the most recent terror propaganda from friends of Mossad and the CIA, an "al Qaeda video" in which al Qaeda's purported number two man, Ayman al-Zawahri, spoke some uncomfortable truths about our transformative new President-elect, Barack Obama."  --  "The video came to us via Rita Katz and the SITE Intelligence Group, which was called the SITE Institute until Katz' only partner left her holding the phony intelligence bag. It was the latest in a long line of questionable videos, some of which Katz has obtained before they appeared on the Islamist websites which SITE allegedly monitors."
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Mossad implicated in a coup plot in Turkey, a NATO country; CIA fingerprints also found on attempt -- http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4087.shtml
A quote...."(WMR)  ---  http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/  ---  Fresh from revelations, reported by WMR, that Israel’s Mossad and Chabad House-based criminal syndicates were targets in a criminal gangland retribution attack by a notorious Muslim gang in Mumbai, comes word that Mossad has, once again, been implicated in an intelligence and criminal network, this time in Turkey."
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The ongoing disgrace of NBC News and Brian Williams  ---  http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/11/30/mccaffrey/index.html?source=newsletter
A quote...."The New York Times's David Barstow, whose excellent and aggressive journalism led to the uncovering last April of the Pentagon's domestic propaganda program involving network "military analysts," today returns to this topic with another lengthy front-page exposé.  Barstow focuses today on the numerous, undisclosed conflicts of interest of Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who continues to be featured frequently by NBC News as an objective analyst as he opines about war policies in which he has a substantial (and concealed) financial stake."
also posted at CommonDreams  ---  http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/12/01-1  ---  Barstow's second article on this issue is shown below....
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One Man’s Military-Industrial-Media Complex  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/washington/30general.html?_r=1&hp
A quote...."In the spring of 2007 a tiny military contractor with a slender track record went shopping for a precious Beltway commodity. -- The company, Defense Solutions, sought the services of a retired general with national stature, someone who could open doors at the highest levels of government and help it win a huge prize: the right to supply Iraq with thousands of armored vehicles." -- For much more on this entire issue see....Fake Intel / Propaganda - NYT Article  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/fakeintell-weblist-mpg-090206#NYT_ARTICLE
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Flashback: U.S. Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights
  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2507-0-20-20--.html
From the History File -- A quote...."Published on 04-12-2008 -- Wikileaks has released a sensitive 219 page US military counterinsurgency manual.
  ---  http://wikileaks.org/wiki/US_Special_Forces_counter-insurgency_manual_FM_31-20-3  ---  The manual, Foreign Internal Defense Tactics Techniques and Procedures for Special Forces (1994, 2004), may be critically described as “what we learned about running death squads and propping up corrupt government in Latin America and how to apply it to other places”. Its contents are both history defining for Latin America and, given the continued role of US Special Forces in the suppression of insurgencies, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, history making."
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Bush reported to be drinking heavily  ---  http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4093.shtml
A quote...."(WMR)  ---  -- With less than two months remaining in office, George W. Bush, witnessing a devastating defeat for the Republican Party, worse favorability ratings than those of Richard Nixon at the height of the Watergate scandal, and the most devastating economic situation since the Great Depression, is reported by a number of well-placed sources in Washington as drinking heavily." -- Probably what the author meant to say is "he's drinking much more heavily than usual". - mpg
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[Flashback:] AFRICOM China and Congo Resource Wars  ---  http://www.engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net/Geopolitics___Eurasia/Africom/africom.html
From the History File -- A quote...."By F. William Engdahl, 25 November, 2008 -- Just weeks after President George W. Bush signed the Order creating a new US military command dedicated to Africa, AFRICOM, events on the mineral-rich continent have erupted which suggest a major agenda of the incoming Obama Presidency will be for the son of a black Kenyan to focus US resources, military and other, on dealing with the Republic of Congo, the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea, the oil-rich Darfur region of southern Sudan and increasingly the Somali ‘pirate threat’ to sea lanes in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The legitimate question is whether it is mere coincidence that Africa appears just at this time to become a new geopolitical ‘hot spot’ or whether it has a direct link to the formal creation of AFRICOM" -- also posted at BLN  ---   http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2499-0-0-0--.html  ---  For more on this issue see....Africa - the Next Target - 02-28-08 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/africathenexttarget-blog-mpg-022808
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European Court Rules Against Britain’s Policy of Keeping DNA Database of Suspects
  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/world/europe/05britain.html?_r=1&hp
A quote...."LONDON — The European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously on Thursday that Britain’s policy of gathering and storing the fingerprints and DNA of all criminal suspects — even those who turn out to be innocent — was a violation of the human right to privacy."
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CNN: No one has Standing to Enforce Constitution  ---  http://georgedonnelly.com/opinion/constitution-hillary-clinton-state
A quote...."CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin says that the Constitution will not “be an impediment” to Hillary Clinton becoming Secretary of State -- even though Article 1, Section 6 specifically - and without exception or condition - prohibits her appointment. Clearly Prohibits Clinton’s Appointment to the Cabinet

Article 1, Section 6 of the Constitution says the following: “No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time.”
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Change.NOT: Left Gatekeeper Blocks Support for 9/11 Commission Records Release  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=11012
A quote...."According to their "About" page, Change.org aims to be "the central platform informing and empowering movements for social change around the most important issues of our time", but they are censoring support for investigating the causes of 9/11, "the day the changed everything" and the reason we live in a "post 9/11 world." On their "Ideas" page, they invite you, the public, to sign up on their site and "submit your ideas for how to change America, discuss with others, and vote for your favorites." What they don't tell you on their About or Ideas pages, is that if your idea suggests further investigation of the 9/11 events in order to properly inform public policy making, it will be deleted."
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9/11 - From The History File...Pentagon Truth: Rumsfeld's "missile" hoax debunked by 9/11 truth activists -article list
  ---  http://www.oilempire.us/pentagon-truth.html
Pentagon & Boeing 757 Engine Investigation
  ---  http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/conspiracy/q0265.shtml
Pentagon Photos: Flight 77 crash time to move on to real issues of complicity
  ---  http://www.oilempire.us/pentagon-photos.html
Primary Target -- Radar Suggests Flight 77 Targeted Pentagon, Not White House
  ---  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/11/national/main310721.shtml
The Pentagon Attack and American Airlines Flight 77
  ---  http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/JohnJudge/PAandAAF77.html
9/11 Pentagon Eyewitness Accounts
  ---  http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/911_pentagon_eyewitnesses.html
Did Cheney Allow 9/11 Plane To Strike Pentagon?
  ---  http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0703/S00069.htm
  ---  in PDF  ---  http://www.ericlarsen.net/FOOD%20FOR%20THOUGHT%207.1.2007.pdf
Google - Pentagon 9/11 Photos - large photo database
  ---  http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&num=10&lr=&as_filetype
  ---  =&as_sitesearch=&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=images&q=
  ---  757+pentagon+9/11+photos&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=titl
Photos Of Flt 77 Wreckage Inside The Pentagon - photos
  ---  http://www.rense.com/general32/phot.htm
Pentagon Attack Photos  Photographic Evidence of the Pentagon Attack - photos
  ---  http://911research.wtc7.net/pentagon/evidence/photos/index.html
Flight 77 - Pentagon Event - 3d Test 3d perspective mapping image ... - photos
  ---  http://0911.site.voila.fr/
Welcome to Flight77.info - photos
  ---  http://www.flight77.info/
DoD Releases Two Videos of Flight 77 Crashing Into Pentagon - photos
  ---  http://www.judicialwatch.org/flight77.shtml
9/11 Pentagon Photos - photos
  --- http://911review.org/brad.com/pentagonpictures.html

For more on this issue see....9/11 - NORAD
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/weblists/911norad-weblist-mpg-091308
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Bernanke's Playbook  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/north/north667.html
Special Note -- A quote...."Ben Bernanke is different from Greenspan. He has a playbook. He has spent his career studying Milton Friedman's now-dominant 1963 interpretation of the failure of Federal Reserve Policy, 1930–33, in not reversing the Great Depression. The FED did not inflate, Friedman said. This was in contrast to Murray Rothbard's 1963 interpretation of the same era. He argued that the FED did inflate, 1924–29, which created the boom that busted in 1929. Had Bernanke studied Murray Rothbard's 1963 book on Federal Reserve policy as the cause of the Great Depression, he might have had a very different career, perhaps teaching in a community college in North Dakota. -- also posted at InfoWars  ---  http://www.prisonplanet.com/bernankes-playbook.html  ---  The author makes the contention that there will be massive inflation, perhaps even Weimar Republic style hyper-inflation in a few years.  This website editor agrees but ONLY IF Bernanke wins the inflation game, and with over $1.3 to $1.5 Quadrillion dollars worth of deravatives out there, much of it going south in a hurry....it looks like good'ol Ben is going to lose this game in a big way. - mpg -- For more on this issue see.... Effective Fed Funds Rate & Total Nonfarm Payrolls  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/cachedfiles/fedfundschart-photopg-cached-032407
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The Dollar and the Tower Get in Bed  ---  http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/powell1.html
A quote...."Mark Lawrence created the Skyscraper Index in 1999. That index showed the correlation between economic crashes and tall buildings. The correlation can be unnerving, especially for those in the architecture profession, such as myself. But the past 100 years show strong evidence for Lawrence – almost every time the tallest building in the world is built, there is an economic crash to follow."
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Financial bailout: a necessary evil   ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFV0HWPqW9E  ---  YouTube - 11 min 59 sec - December 03, 2008)
Video - A quote...."Bailing out U.S. financial institutions comes at a high price for society, but the alternative is a global collapse that would be much worse, believes New York University economics Professor Nouriel Roubini.
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U.S. Federal Reserve May Buy U.S. Treasuries   ---  http://cryptogon.com/?p=5417  ---  This is beyond stupid. - mpg
Financial Warning - A quote...."This doesn’t make any sense. The U.S. Government authorizes the Fed to create money out of thin air, which it will then use to buy up the debt of the U.S. Government that nobody else wants? -- Is anyone who is currently holding U.S. Treasuries even reading the news? The auctions are going to fail, so the debtor is just going to snap his fingers and create the money to buy the debt that nobody else wanted to buy? -- How does the dollar not collapse on this?"
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The Risk of Default by the UK has Risen 98% In the Last Month  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/12/risk-of-default-by-uk-has-risen-98-in.html
A quote...."The amount of credit default swap wagers betting that governments will default on their obligations was stunning a month ago: more than 1 trillion dollars. -- In the last month, things have gotten even worse, and some major Western economies are getting hammered by CDS."
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The Feast of the Vampires  ---  http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2008/12/feast-of-vampires.html
A quote...."People occasionally note that the United States no longer "makes" anything. That seems a bit unfair to me. I think a very strong case indeed could be made for the United States as the leading world supplier of the empty, insultingly stupid charades typical of declining empire:"
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Fortress, the Hedge Fund, Is Crumbling  ---  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/business/04place.html?_r=1&emc=eta1
A quote...."When Wesley R. Edens and his partners founded their investment firm a decade ago, they chose a name that evoked unshakeable bastions: Fortress."
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U.S. Retail Sales Fall in Worst Drop in Four Decades  ---  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aUYE9gPMdo9k&refer=home
Special Note -- A quote...."Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Sales at U.S. retailers tumbled in November, the worst monthly decline in almost four decades, after the Wall Street meltdown caused consumers to postpone shopping until the holiday-sales kickoff on Black Friday." - bold by website editor
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Factory Orders in the U.S. Decrease 5.1%, Most in 8 Years  ---  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ajTjoOucRCyI&refer=home
Special Note -- A quote...."Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Orders placed with U.S. factories in October fell by the most in 8 years, signaling a decline in manufacturing will contribute to deepening the recession." -- bold by website editor
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Layoffs soar as US plunges deeper into recession  ---  http://wsws.org/articles/2008/dec2008/usec-d04.shtml
A quote...."New economic reports show that the severity of the US recession and the speed with which it is developing are greater than anticipated by economists and business forecasters. Data released Wednesday reveal a sharp rise in layoffs in virtually every sector of the economy, continuing distress in credit markets, financial instability and slumping consumer demand. The indices portend a recession more severe and protracted than any since the Great Depression of the 1930s."
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Over 1 million U.S. layoffs so far this year  ---  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/12/03/BUDA14GTA9.DTL
A quote...."(12-03) 19:28 PST  -- Big employers nationwide announced 181,671 layoffs in November, bringing the number of corporate pink slips issued so far this year to more than a million, according to an industry survey released Wednesday."
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Darling is running out of options as rates near zero
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/darling-is-running-out-of-options-as-rates-near-zero-1052519.html
A quote...."The Bank of England has cut rates to their lowest level for 57 years. But the pound still slumped, house prices are falling and job losses are soaring. So are the authorities running out of options?"
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Carnage on the high street as retailers feel the chill
  ---  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/carnage-on-the-high-street-as-retailers-feel-the-chill-1052788.html
A quote...."Two more high-street retailers called in the administrators yesterday as the sector braced itself for tens of thousands of job losses and hundreds of store closures over the coming months."
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Wednesday December 3rd 2008 - links page

Continuity Error: Guts, Goo and Obama's Imperial Dream
  ---  http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1654-continuity-error-guts-goo-and-obamas-imperial-dream-.html
Must Read - A quote...."Barack Obama's new "national security team" is a grim conglomeration of war criminals, warmongers and apologists for torture and empire who have been praised justly by some rightwingers as a continuation and validation of the Bush Regime's foreign policy. But despite the growing unease these choices have induced in some "progressive" quarters, they in no way constitute a "betrayal" on Obama's part. He has always made it abudantly clear that he stands squarely on the side of a militarist empire – expansive, dominating, brooking no challenge or hindrance to its actions or its preeminence. An empire conceived in bloodshed and dedicated to the proposition that no nation is created equal to the divine American state, whose "interests" – as self-servingly defined by whatever faction of the ruling elite holds temporary sway in Washington – must be pursued at any and every cost. A cost to be paid, of course, by the lesser breeds beyond the Homeland's borders, and, increasingly, by the American people themselves."

The Mumbia Attack - 5 Articles - Wednesday - [ Day 8 ] ========== ========== ========== ==
   
Bodies in the River  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/12/bodies-in-river.html
Must Read - A quote...."There's a well-known myth in India about bodies in the river. - Villagers notice a body floating by, and they take it out of the river and bury it. - Then more bodies float by, and the villagers take them out and bury them. - Soon, so many bodies are floating downriver that the village can't keep up. They run to the village elder to ask him how to fish all the bodies out. - The elder tells them to stop fishing out bodies, and instead tells them to walk upstream to find out why bodies are falling in the river in the first place. He tells them that unless they stop it, they won't solve the problem. - They do so, find out why people are dying and ending up in the river, and stop the whole mess."
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Pakistani Security Consultant Calls Mumbai Attacks A "Botched" False Flag  ---  http://infowars.net/articles/december2008/031208Botched.htm
Must Read - A quote...."A renowned Pakistani strategic defence analyst has described last week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai as a "botched" false flag operation designed to imitate the 9/11 attacks on the United States." -- also posted at AAM
  ---  http://willyloman.wordpress.com/:http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/pakistani-security-
  ---  consultant-calls-mumbai-attacks-a-%E2%80%9Cbotched%E2%80%9D-false-flag/
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Pakistan offers 'joint investigation' into Mumbai attacks  ---  http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=255435
A quote...."MUMBAI – Pakistan offered on Tuesday to work hand-in-hand with India to track down those responsible for the Mumbai attacks but declined to respond immediately to a demand that it hand over 20 terrorist suspects."
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Mumbai Terror Attack: Further Evidence Of The Anglo-American-Mossad-RSS Nexus  ---  http://www.countercurrents.org/misra031208.htm
A quote...."Now who has the last laugh? That is the question; I only have pity for those who cannot see reality and who were so glib to buy into what the media and political troubleshooters were saying about the Mumbai terrorist attacks."
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Mumbai attacks: Terrorists took cocaine to stay awake during assault
  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/3540964/Mumbai-attacks-Terrorists-took-cocaine-to-stay-awake-during-assault.html
Special Note -- A quote...."We found injections containing traces of cocaine and LSD left behind by the terrorists [false flag operatives] and later found drugs in their blood," said one official. -- "There was also evidence of steroids, which isn't uncommon in terrorists [false flag operatives]. -- "These men were all toned, suggesting they had been doing some heavy training for the attacks. This explains why they managed to battle the commandos for over 50 hours with no food or sleep." -- also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2491-0-20-20--.html

End - The Mumbia Attack - 5 Articles - Wednesday - [ Day 8 ] ========== ========== ========== ==

Neo-[Obama]-cons still preparing for Iran attack  ---  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JL04Ak01.html
War Alert - A quote...."A familiar coalition of hawks, hardliners and neo-cons expects Obama's proposed talks with Iran to fail - and they're already proposing an escalating set of measures instead. Some are meant to occur alongside any future talks. These include steps to enhance coordination with Israel, tougher sanctions against Iran, and a region-wide military buildup of US strike forces, including the prepositioning of military supplies within striking distance of that country." -- also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2480-0-3-3--.html
& TomDispatch  ---  http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175009/robert_dreyfuss_is_iran_policy_still_up_for_grabs_
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For more regading this issue see....The True Axis of Evil - 10-10-08 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/thetrueaxisofevil-mpg-blog-101008
See also....A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the New American Century" - 10-31-08 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/afunnythinghappenedonthewaytothenac-mpg-reficultnias-103108
See also....The Iran Game - All Over Again - 05-27-08 - mpg
  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/theirangamealloveragain-mpg-blog-052708
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Report-World can expect nuclear or biological attack  ---  http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php?sid=437569
A quote...."In the US, the bi-partisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism has warned that terrorists will most likely use nuclear or biological weapons in the next five years. -- The US Congressional commission reported that a weapon of mass destruction is likely to be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013."
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Masks of Empire  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Masks-of-Empire-by-Mumia-Abu-Jamal-081202-652.html
A quote...."It would be easy to succumb to the euphoria of the hour. --  Easy. Too easy.  --  Despite this effluvia of euphoria, blown higher by a media that has learned its role of servitude to power all too well, we have seen reasons to be concerned.  --  Media reportage and cheers of purported cabinet choices (from a media that claimed to have learned its lesson about cheerleading after the Iraq debacle), should give us pause, for they seem designed more for reassurance than to change."
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Excuse Me - (YouTube - 26 sec - December 02, 2008)  ---  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SybaqYOwzxc
Video - A quote...."Who wants to stand next to the President for a picture? Apparently nobody..."
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Agreement to export oil from Kurdish fields collapses  ---  http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2008-12-03%5Ckurd.htm
A quote...."An agreement to allow Kurds to export up to 100,000 barrels of oil  a day via national pipelines has collapsed, Oil Ministry officials said. --  The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said differences over collection of royalties and the Kurdish region’s right to strike oil deals on its own led to the collapse of the deal."
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War of words rages between Kurds and central government  ---  http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news%5C2008-12-02%5Ckurd.htm
A quote...."Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani are supposed to be close friends since their political factions dominate the parliament and the government. They understand that they need each other to prevent their ruling coalition and government from collapse. But there is little they see eye-to-eye. Barzani is known in Iraqi quarters, particularly Arab factions, for his manipulations and maneuvering. In 1996 he sided with Saddam Hussein and his Republican Guards who, in coordination with his militias, crushed the forces of his once Kurdish nemesis Jalal Talabani, the current President of Iraq. But history in Iraq has a very short memory. Maliki wants to clip Barzani’s wings. But he does not seem to have enough troops and power to do so. Iraqi troops are bogged down in fighting al-Qaeda and other armed groups opposing the presence of U.S. troops in the country. With the troops busy quelling an internal insurgency in central Iraq, Barzani has seized the opportunity by deploying his own militias in areas traditionally not part of the Kurdish enclave."
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Running the Distance for Palestine  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14446
A quote...."We build playgrounds for Palestinian children.  It’s our way of using love to resist Israel’s miserable occupation of Palestine.  Love of children.  Love of play.  Love and admiration of the dauntless Palestinian heart that continues to endure, year after worsening year."
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Revoking Israel's UN Membership  ---  http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14445
A quote...."The Gaza Strip is now the largest concentration camp in the world. The situation grows steadily more insufferable for the 1.5 million Palestinians who live there. Deliveries of food, medicine and fuel are made difficult or stopped altogether. Child malnutrition is increasing. Water supplies and drainage have ceased to function. Children die for lack of healthcare. Tunnels to Egypt, dug by hand, are the only breathing space. Journalists and diplomats are denied entry. Israel is planning more military efforts. The Palestinians in Gaza are now to be starved into surrender and become an Egyptian problem."
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POLITICS:  Muslim-Majority Nations Back More Independent U.N.  ---  http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44956
A quote...."UNITED NATIONS, Dec 2 (IPS) - People in seven majority Muslim countries favour a more active United Nations with broader powers, while simultaneously viewing the world body as dominated by the U.S. and failing to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to a new poll by WorldPublicOpinion.org, a global network of research centres."
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War in the Congo: The Ambitions of Nkunda and his Anglo-American Allies  ---  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11278
A quote...."Every day the hardships and cruelties worsen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (former Zaire). Many of its citizens —those who do not benefit from the theft of the country’s minerals by foreign transnationals, with the support of local allies— wonder how many days more they will have to live."
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Foreign Intervention Won The Venezuelan Elections  ---  http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4010
Even if true (it probably is), there are two problems with thinking this way about the whole situation. One: it makes one more paranoid then one should be and can cause the government to distrust, misconstrue or under estimate legitimate opposition making things much worse which would play right into the hands of “foreign forces”.  Two: There's lots of legitimate discontent because things are indeed not going well, Chavez will have to concentrate harder on solving some of Venezuela's domestic issues that have been allowed to simmer.  Of course the wealthy elements in the opposition backed by US interests who now control some of Venezuela’s most populous states will rip off every single boliver they can lay their hands on, cause enormous strife and chaos, and blame Chavez for every bit of it.  But that's to be expected....it’s their standard “game plan” after all. - mpg  -- A quote..."Years of work penetrating communities and financing "democracy" programs and projects with an anti-socialist vision in the communities of Petare, Sucre Municipality of Miranda State, and Catia, Libertador Municipality in Caracas, and in other zones where the vast majority of the population of Caracas and Miranda is located, allowed the opposition to retake control of these areas. The strategic political consultation, with its separatist vision and in favor of the infiltration of paramilitaries in Zulia and Tachira, allowed these areas that are of such importance to the security of the Venezuelan state to be controlled by an opposition that is subordinate to the agenda of Washington and the objectives of Plan Colombia that plague the region."
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Gorbachev: US hindering Europe security  ---  http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=255480
A quote...."Gorbachev described the expansion of the European Union and NATO following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 as two 'serious mistakes' which hindered the formation of a common European security system."
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[Russian] Caribbean drills right under U.S.'s nose  ---  http://www.russiatoday.com/news/news/34157
A quote...."The Russian submarine hunter Admiral Chabanenko is heading to Panama for a short visit following joint exercises with Venezuela in the Caribbean. The two navies trained to deal with air attacks, conduct rescue operations and refuel at sea."
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Russia sends warship through Panama Canal  ---  http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=77386&sectionid=351020602
A quote...."Russia is sending a warship through the Panama Canal for the first time since World War II, and it will dock at a former US naval base."
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The world's most heinous crime  ---  http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/11/20/sbm.overview/index.html
Special Note - (CNN) -- 1980s: Iraq -- CNN found that intervention is often weighed against political and economic costs. Declassified U.S. government documents show that while Saddam Hussein was gassing Iraqi Kurds, the U.S. opposed punishing Iraq with a trade embargo because it was cultivating Iraq as an ally against Iran and as a market for U.S. farm exports. According to Peter Galbraith, then an idealistic Senate staffer determined to stop Hussein from committing genocide, the Reagan administration "got carried away with their own propaganda. They began to believe that Saddam Hussein could be a reliable partner."" - bold by website editor -- related link shown below....
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Once-secret Reagan administration documents on Iraq  ---  http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/11/20/sbm.documents/index.html
Special Note -- A quote...."(CNN) -- The U.S. diplomatic courtship with Iraq in the 1980s continued despite Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons. Click on the links to read once-classified documents from the Reagan administration."
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Federal Prosecutor Is Making Inquiries in the Investigation of the Dismissal of U.S. Attorneys
  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=77002
A quote...."A prosecutor who is investigating the dismissals of nine U.S. attorneys has been meeting with defense lawyers, dispatching subpoenas and seeking information about the events, according to legal sources familiar with the case."
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Italian judge suspends CIA kidnapping trial  ---  http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnL3369400.html
A quote...."MILAN, Dec 3 (Reuters) - A Milan judge on Wednesday suspended the high-profile trial of U.S. and Italian agents suspected of a CIA kidnapping after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi authorized witnesses to invoke state secrecy." -- For more on this issue see....Fun & Torture - It's a Pleasure - 02-03-07 - mpg  ---  http://www.reficultnias.org/mikesfiles/blotterminiblogs/funandtorture-blog-mpg-020307.html
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Air Force plans to create fourth B-52 squadron at Minot by 2010  ---  http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=59201
A quote...."ARLINGTON, Va. — The Air Force will stand up a fourth operational B-52 squadron, likely at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., by late 2009 or early 2010, according to Air Combat Command."
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Detroit vs. Wall Street: The Trillion Dollar Class War  ---  http://www.opednews.com/articles/Detroit-vs-Wall-Street--by-Cameron-Salisbury-081203-513.html
A quote...."If anyone doubted that a class war is in progress, hidden beneath a variety of euphemisms, like ‘bail out’, ‘downsizing,’ ‘outsourcing’ and ‘NAFTA’, their doubts can now be given the decent burial that they deserve.  There has been no more blatant act of class antagonism in recent memory than the apparent willingness of Congress and Wall Street’s appointed grifter, Henry Paulson, to let a major part of the American manufacturing sector die."
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Applying the Iraq war multiplier to the bailouts: If you’re going to eat [crud], eat it with a spoon  ---  http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/1917
Financial Warning - A quote...."If we apply the same Iraq war multipliers to the bailouts, then the bailouts could cost taxpayers $41 trillion if we assume an initial base value of $700 billion, or as much as $595 trillion if we assume a base value of $8.5 trillion."

Initial Bailout Proposal: $700 Billion
Total as of December 2008: $8.5 Trillion

Low Estimate:                                       "High" Estimate:
$700 Billion x 58 = $41 Trillion               $8.5 Trillion x 58 = $493 Trillion
$700 Billion x 70 = $49 Trillion               $8.5 Trillion x 58 = $493 Trillion

Range:  The bailouts could cost anywhere between $41 Trillion to $595 Trillion.
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Fear Drives CDS to All-Time Wides, World-Wide  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/12/fear-drives-cds-to-all-time-wides-world.html
Financial Warning - A quote...."The first two lines of a note by Markit's Miles Johnson says it all...."

"Credit default swap spreads spiralled wider worldwide on Wednesday as low volumes and bearish sentiment drove the cost of both sovereign and corporate default protection to unprecedented highs. --  The Markit iTraxx indices for European investment grade and junk debt jumped to new records while cds written on the debt of the UK, US, Italy, France, Spain and Germany were at all-time high levels."
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The New Bubble: Cash  ---  http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-bubble-cash.html
Financial Alert - A quote...."As the deleveraging tsunami continues, fears of deflation loom large, and the value of stocks, commodities and virtually all other asset classes is being decimated, investors are flocking to the dollar. -- Cash and treasury bills (which are really cash) have done very well in comparison to everything else, and people sitting in cash are feeling pretty smart. -- But will it last?"
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Corporate Debt Protection Costs Climb Amid Depression Concern -- http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a9O.8z7S8pD0&refer=home
Financial Alert - A quote...."Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of protecting corporate debt from default jumped to a record in Europe and neared a high in the U.S. amid concern that the global recession will sink into a depression."
also posted at BLN  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2487-0-13-13--.html
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Metal prices fall further than during Great Depression
  ---  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/mining/3543370/Metal-prices-fall-further-than-during-Great-Depression.html
Financial Alert - A quote...."The price of key industrial metals has fallen further over the last four months than occurred during the worst years of Great Depression between 1929 and 1933, according to research by Barclays Capital."
also posted at RougeGov  ---  http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=13098
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Private Sector Sheds 250,000 Jobs In November  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2490-0-8-8--.html
A quote...."Private employers cut 250,000 jobs in November, the most in seven years, a report by a private employment service said on Wednesday." -
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Joining the euro looks a better option; currency becomes a safe haven in global economy storm  ---  http://www.blacklistednews.com/news-2495-0-7-7--.html
A quote...."BRUSSELS, Belgium - One small island nation on the northwestern edge of Europe is counting its blessings. Like Iceland, its banks threw cash at investors eager to buy businesses and properties across the European Union. But the luck of the Irish is that they joined the euro, sealing them into one of the most stable currencies and sheltering them from the worst of the global storm. "We have all seen the Iceland situation and if we are out on our own something similar could have happened in Ireland," Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said last month."
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US newspaper ad sales fall a record $2B in 3Q  ---  http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/linkframe.php?linkid=76922
Some quotes...."LOS ANGELES - U.S. newspaper advertising revenue collapsed by nearly $2 billion, or 18 percent, in the third quarter, according to the Newspaper Association of America, an industry group...." -- "The year-on-year quarterly percentage decline is the worst since since the NAA has been keeping such records and represents an increasingly rapid deceleration that began in the third quarter of 2006, when total ad spending dropped 1.5 percent." - -bold by website editor
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