Washington, D.C., January 26, 2006 – A secret Pentagon “roadmap” on war propaganda, personally approved by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in October 2003, calls for “boundaries” between information operations abroad and the news media at home, but provides for no such limits and claims that as long as the American public is not “targeted,” any leakage of PSYOP to the American public does not matter.

Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive at George Washington University and posted on the Web today, the 74-page “Information Operations Roadmap” admits that “information intended for foreign audiences, including public diplomacy and PSYOP, increasingly is consumed by our domestic audience and vice-versa,” but argues that “the distinction between foreign and domestic audiences becomes more a question of USG [U.S. government] intent rather than information dissemination practices.”
www.gwu.edu

File shows US ‘psychological operations’ concerns

Chevron Corp.’s fourth-quarter profit climbed 20 percent to $4.14 billion, a company record that continued the most prosperous stretch in the oil company’s 126-year history as it capitalizes on high fuel prices that are squeezing consumers and ruffling politicians.

Its profit of $14.1 billion for the full year was also a company record.

The San Ramon, Calif.-based company’s earnings for 2005’s final quarter, released Friday, represented the most it has made in any three-month period since its inception in 1879. The performance edged the $4.13 billion earned during the second quarter of 2004 _ the early stages of a two-year boom.

Chevron now has posted record annual profits in each of the last two years, earning a combined $27.4 billion.

Oppenheimer & Co. Fadel Gheit believes Chevron will set yet another new earnings record this year as the company continues to mine crude oil prices that are expected to remain above $60 per barrel. “We are only scratching the surface,” Gheit said. “In my view, this company is hitting on all cylinders.”

The windfalls that Chevron has been generating aren’t unique in its industry. Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, earned nearly $10 billion in the third quarter and may top that performance when it releases its fourth quarter results Monday.

…For all of 2005, Chevron’s $14.1 billion profit amounted to $6.54 per share, topping its previous highest annual profit of $13.3 billion, or $6.14 per share, established in 2004. Last year’s gains partially reflect Chevron’s increased size after completing a $17.8 billion takeover of Unocal Corp. in August.

The Unocal acquisition increased Chevron’s supply of oil and natural gas, better positioning the company to take advantage of energy prices that have been driven up by steadily rising worldwide demand and Middle East turmoil.

Chevron’s profit would have been even higher last year if not for extensive damage to its Gulf of Mexico operations caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita during August and September.

Those devastating storms hobbled a major Mississippi oil refinery, as well as the Chevron’s natural gas production, preventing the company from fully cashing in on a sharp run-up in energy prices.

Chevron estimated the decreased production in the Gulf of Mexico lowered its annual profit by about $1.4 billion, with about half the loss occurring during the fourth quarter. Gheit estimated the fourth- quarter production setbacks trimmed Chevron’s earnings by about 31 cents per share.

The company has since repaired most of the storm damage, but its production continues to lag below levels before the hurricanes.

Until Katrina struck, Chevron’s average oil production in the Gulf of Mexico averaged about 300,000 barrels per day. In fourth quarter, the average fell to about 160,000 barrels per day. This year, Chevron expects to average about 200,000 barrels per day in the Gulf.

Substantially higher prices for oil and natural gas enabled Chevron to overcome its problems in the Gulf of Mexico.
breitbart.com

The more chaos the better. Rock on Chevron.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The city of New Orleans could lose up to 80 percent of its black population if people displaced by Hurricane Katrina are not able to return to damaged neighborhoods, according to an ongoing university study.

“This means that policy choices affecting who can return, to which neighborhoods, and with what forms of public and private assistance, will greatly affect the future character of the city,” according to the Brown University study, which is being funded by the National Science Foundation.

The lead researcher, sociology professor John Logan, determined that if the city’s returning population was limited to neighborhoods undamaged by Katrina, half of the white population would not return and 80 percent of the black population would not return.
msn.com

Some 20 drop-in centers, shelters, homeless feeding programs and health clinics already dot the area around Hollywood Boulevard and Gower Street. And the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency has just purchased three lots steps from the intersection and announced plans to construct up to 60 residences and a companion social services program catering to the homeless.

Backers argue that the project will be good for Hollywood because it will take homeless people off the street and put them into long-term housing.

But a growing number of critics fear it will lure more street people into the area, potentially jeopardizing Hollywood’s fledgling revitalization that has nightclubs, high-end hotels and trendy restaurants popping up.

The proposed $20-million homeless project would rise just blocks from what civic leaders are hoping will be a cornerstone of Hollywood’s rebirth. There, at Hollywood and Vine, an ambitious retail and residential development includes conversion of the old Broadway department store into lofts and construction of a luxury 300-room W Hotel and an accompanying 150-unit residential complex. They will be around the corner from such hot spots as the ArcLight theater complex, Amoeba Records and the Sunset/Vine retail center.

“It’s ironic that while we’re on the verge of creating a vibrant new Hollywood, we’re at the same time creating a potential Hollywood skid row,” said Fran Reichenbach, founder of the Beachwood Canyon Neighborhood Assn.

The clash illustrates the looming problem officials face as they make a new push to deal with the homeless problem citywide. As part of the campaign, a delegation that includes several City Council members and business leaders was in New York this week to examine how that city has dealt with its homeless problem.
latimes.com

WASHINGTON — Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa accelerated his drive Thursday to take over the troubled Los Angeles Unified School District, announcing for the first time that he wants full control in two years and will unveil a detailed reform plan in three months.

In recent weeks, Villaraigosa has assembled a team of advisors who are beginning to draft a plan to take on the elected school board and the city’s powerful teachers union to win voter approval for a takeover.

This week, Villaraigosa and key aides launched a blitz of speeches to begin to lay the foundation for the coming campaign.

At a conference of mayors in Washington on Wednesday and Thursday, Villaraigosa argued that the district is failing its 727,000 students. He also consulted with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who have oversight of their school boards.
latimes.com

This is a country filled with failing schools.

A Minnesota senator said he was concerned that congressional trips to Israel could be cut under lobbying reform proposals.

Speaking at a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Republican Norm Coleman said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee provides a service by sending lawmakers to Israel to meet its leaders.

“That would be prohibited if we take the approach that’s been articulated here,” Coleman said. “So I don’t think that helps us be better senators.” Several congressional leaders and outside groups have proposed lobbying reforms that would curtail all private travel by members of Congress.
jta.org

BERLIN – Germany may need to build its own nuclear weapons to counter the threat of nuclear bombs falling into the hands of a terrorist state, a former German defence minister said Thursday.

“We need a serious discussion over how we can react to a nuclear threat by a terrorist state in an appropriate manner – and in extreme cases with our own nuclear weapons,” said Rupert Scholz who served as defence minister from 1988 to 1989.

Germany does not have nuclear weapons and Scholz admitted in a Bild newspaper interview that his remarks were breaking what is widely seen as a national taboo.

Scholz – who is a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – said Berlin should first try to get binding guarantees from the NATO alliance that it would protect Germany in case nuclear threats were directed at the country.

But he insisted if such guarantees were not spelled out in a formal NATO doctrine, then Germany needed to ponder building its own nuclear deterrence system.
expatica.com

WASHINGTON — Despite persistent disillusionment with the war in Iraq, a majority of Americans supports taking military action against Iran if that country continues to produce material that can be used to develop nuclear weapons, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.

The poll, conducted Sunday through Wednesday, found that 57% of Americans favor military intervention if Iran’s Islamic government pursues a program that could enable it to build nuclear arms.

Support for military action against Tehran has increased over the last year, the poll found, even though public sentiment is running against the war in neighboring Iraq: 53% said they believe the situation there was not worth going to war.

The poll results suggest that the difficulties the United States has encountered in Iraq have not turned the public against the possibility of military actions elsewhere in the Middle East.

Support for a potential military confrontation with Iran was strongest among Republican respondents, among whom 76% endorsed the idea. But even among Democrats, who overwhelmingly oppose the war in Iraq, 49% supported such action.
latimes.com

Iran: We’ll Shut Down Straits of Hormuz
A senior Iranian official is threatening to close the Straits of Hormuz using military force, which would effectively shut down the Persian Gulf oil supply – if European supports economic sanctions against Iran in a bid to halt Tehran’s nuclear program.

“If Europe does not act wisely with the Iranian nuclear portfolio and it is referred to the U.N. Security Council and economic or air travel restrictions are imposed unjustly, we have the power to halt oil supply to the last drop from the shores of the Persian Gulf via the Straits of Hormuz,” said Mohammed-Nabi Rudaki, deputy chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.

According to the Israeli News service Haaretz, which first reported the threat on Tuesday based on an Iranian news account – this is the first time an Iranian official has publicly issued a military threat.

Iran vows to put Israel into ‘eternal coma’ if attacked
Were Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iran would respond so strongly that it would put the Jewish state into “an eternal coma” like Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s, the Iranian defense minister said yesterday.

Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has said his country would not accept Iran’s acquiring nuclear weapons under any circumstances. He stopped short of threatening a military strike against Iran, but he said Israel was preparing for the possible failure of diplomatic negotiations with Iran.

A newscaster on Iranian state television read out a response from Iran’s minister of defense, Gen. Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, yesterday.

“Zionists should know that if they do anything evil against Iran, the response of Iran’s armed forces will be so firm that it will send them into eternal coma, like Sharon,” Najjar said.

Isn’t all this posturing just too convenient?

Iran accuses U.S., Britain and Israel of role in 2 plane crashes
TEHRAN – Iran said Thursday it had information that the United States, Britain and Israel had a role in two deadly military plane crashes in the last two months.

It was the latest accusation by Tehran against the West in their sharpening confrontation. A day earlier, Iran blamed the United States and Britain for two bombings this week that killed at least nine people in southwestern Iran.

“The information we have says that the U.S, Britain and Israel’s intelligence agents intended to create insecurity in Iran,” Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi told reporters on the sidelines of a police seminar. “Even my evaluation says that the crash of our C-130 and Falcon planes was done by their design, or maybe electronic interference.”

Iran to Give Georgia Emergency Gas Supply
Georgia’s president said Friday that Iran had agreed to start providing emergency gas supplies to the Caucasus mountain nation as early as this weekend, signaling an end to an energy crisis made worse by an extreme cold snap.

Russia, meanwhile, was close to completing repairs on a gas pipeline that would allow it to resume gas deliveries later Friday, an official said.

The electric utility in the capital of Tbilisi was providing 110 megawatts of electricity, while Azerbaijan was sending in 50 megawatts, Turkey 60 megawatts and Russia 65 megawatts. Still, Georgia needed 600 megawatts more to ensure a normal supply, the Georgian State Electric System said.

President Mikhail Saakashvili cut short his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday to try to calm fears that sent residents into long lines to fill kerosene canisters for portable heaters and some to chop down branches and trees to fuel stoves.

Saakashvili told his Cabinet that Iran had agreed to supply Georgia with gas via Azerbaijan beginning Sunday – or Monday, at the latest.

“The amount will be enough to restore electric and gas supplies,” he said.

The latest energy crisis began last weekend, when an explosion on a major gas pipeline that runs through the Russian border region of North Ossetia cut supplies to many Georgian regions. Russian authorities blamed the blasts on saboteurs.

The misery worsened early Thursday when a fierce windstorm in western Georgia ruptured power lines leading from the Inguri hydroelectric station to eastern regions, leaving about 3 million people in the dark, Deputy Energy Minister Alexander Khetaguri said.

Then, a gas-powered unit of a Tbilisi power station shut down because of malfunctions, leaving most of Tbilisi’s 1.5 millions residents – a third of the country’s population – to scrounge for other heating options as a heavy snow fell and daytime temperatures fell to 17 degrees.

http://www.musicsolutions.ca/mp3/LARS-Marley.mp3

by Michael Neumann
What matters for an understanding of the Israel/Palestine conflict is what the expression ‘a Jewish state’ would mean to any reasonable person. What, in particular, could the Palestinians reasonably expect when they heard that such a state was to be established in Palestine?

The state itself–the human community–is, everywhere in the world, an absolute dictator bound neither by morality nor by law. Even in the most impeccable democracy, there are ways to institute anything humans can do to one another. Frequently, as in the case of the democratic Weimar Republic of Germany, just invoking emergency legislation is quite enough to open the gates of hell.
counterpunch.org