Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday called for the military and other government agencies to mount a far more aggressive, swift and nontraditional information campaign to counter the messages of extremist and terrorist groups in the world media.

Rumsfeld criticized the absence of a “strategic communications framework” for fighting terrorism. He also lashed out at the U.S. media, which he blamed for effectively halting recent U.S. military initiatives in the information realm — such as paying to place articles in Iraqi newspapers — through an “explosion of critical press stories.”
washingtonpost.com

…Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their country and become unapologetically paranoid. Paranoia should now be the normal state of mind for thinking people. Sneers and dismissive remarks about “conspiracy theorists” must be ignored. We don’t want to end up like the proverbial frog who boils to death because the heat was turned up slowly.

…What ought to shock and terrify every American is that KBR, a Halliburton subsidiary, was awarded a $385 million contract to build “temporary detention facilities” in case of an “immigration emergency”:

“The contract may also provide migrant detention support to other U.S. Government organizations in the event of an immigration emergency, as well as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency, such as a natural disaster. In the event of a natural disaster, the contractor could be tasked with providing housing for ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) personnel performing law enforcement functions in support of relief efforts.”

Anyone paying a little bit of attention will ask, “What immigration emergency?” If there is an immigration emergency looming on the horizon it is a big secret. Of course immigrants will be the first ensnared in the net that big brother Bush has in mind, but the net won’t stop with them.

What sort of national emergency requires detention centers? America has plenty of prisons. More of our population is behind bars than in any country on earth. There are detention centers for immigration in existence already. As for helping in case of a natural disaster, hurricane Katrina proved that saving American lives is not on the Bush agenda.

When the word detention comes up, hairs should rise on the back of every neck. Thanks to the Patriot Act and the creation of “enemy combatants” these detention centers can be used to lock up anyone for any reason for any length of time that Uncle Sam wishes.

In the best case scenario, this contract may be just the latest hand out to the welfare queen of corporate America. It is a sad day indeed when we must hope that good old fashioned greed, and nothing more, is at work with this latest theft from the United States treasury. Even if greed is the larger part of the equation, the threat of taking our rights and subjecting us to fear cannot be far from the minds of Dick Cheney and his ilk.
blackcommentator.com

…Dr Sentamu, the Church of England’s second in command, urged the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) to take legal action against the US – through the US courts or the International Court of Justice at The Hague – should it fail to respond to a report, by five UN inspectors, advising that Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay should be shut immediately because prisoners there are being tortured.

…”The US should try all 500 detainees at Guantanamo, who still include eight British residents, or free them without further delay. To hold someone for up to four years without charge clearly indicates a society that is heading towards George Orwell’s Animal Farm.”
independent.co.uk

TEHRAN – “In the current situation, the colonialist countries have focused all their efforts on preventing the development of independent countries,” Iranian Majlis Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel said in Caracas on Tuesday, underlining the fact that the West intends to trample upon Iran’s right to access peaceful nuclear technology.

Haddad-Adel, who is currently in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela heading a high-ranking delegation, told members of the Venezuelan Parliament that in recent years, the Iranian nation and officials have eagerly followed developments in the friendly country of Venezuela because the fate of these two revolutionary countries is intertwined, and this has led to closer relations between the two nations.

Underlining the fact that bilateral relations between Iran and Venezuela have been promoted, Hadad-Adel expressed hope that the two nations would soon witness the fruition of their efforts in all political, economic, and cultural spheres.
tehrantimes.com

…To minimize or omit the historical significance of February 4th 1992 by the mainstream media inhibits a broader understanding of this large-scale mobilization of the Venezuelan people. Chavez was a young paratrooper when he led the failed but popular ‘Bolivarian Movement’ military rebellion on February 4, 1992. He served two years in prison before rising to political power on a promise to better the lives of the impoverished majority.

Chavez was then described as “a type of Saddam Hussein, not bright but very determined, a “Rambo” among “anachronistic nationalists with fascist tendencies and no defined ideology,” according to retired General Carlos Julio Penaloza, the army’s former commander general until June 1991(IPS, Feb 5th, 1993). Later, the BBC would characterize Chavez and the Bolivarian movement with the label that would stick, that of their having “ultra-leftist leanings.”

Although the trajectory of Chavez’s political endeavors was hindered, it would only be for a short period:

“Comrades: unfortunately, for the moment, the objectives that we had set ourselves have not been achieved in the capital…those of us here in Caracas have not been able to seize power,” said Chavez on National television after surrendering. It is also apposite to mention the words of Vice President Vincent Rangel, who marched alongside the people and would precede Chavez with a short and inspirational speech on February 4th, 2006.

Striking a prophetic chord, in 1992 Rangel defended the actions of Chavez and his young Bolivarian Movement, “This crisis should not be considered over because the uprising has been crushed. To think that way would be an illusion,” wrote El Diario de Caracas, quoting Rangel – cited in AP, February 5th, 1992, ‘Coup Struck a Chord in Economically Ailing Venezuela’

It was on this historic day that the Bolivarian Revolution was sparked and has since resulted in over a dozen popular democratic ratifications of the Movement. The Presidential elections scheduled for late 2006 will only be the latest in a long process of popular consolidation of the Revolution, the thing that the NED and its State Department overseers fear the most: the ever-looming threat of a good example.
zmag.org

Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chávez, said he would resist an “imperialist attack” after Washington announced it would pursue an “inoculation strategy” against his government by creating a united front against its policies.

The rhetoric reflected a rapid deterioration in relations between the two countries after Venezuelan espionage allegations against the US and tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats.

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, used her harshest language to date in testimony to Congress on Thursday in which she called Venezuela and Cuba “sidekicks” of Iran, and launched a campaign to rally international opposition to the Chávez government.
guardian.co.uk

Chavez Warns U.S. on Oil Exports
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned on Friday he could cut off oil exports to the United States if Washington goes “over the line” in what he has said are attempts to destabilize his left-leaning government.

Chavez made his threat a day after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the Venezuelan government posed “one of the biggest problems” in the region and that its ties to Cuba were “particularly dangerous” to democracy in Latin America.

“The government of the United States should know that if they go over the line, they are not going to have Venezuelan oil,” Chavez said.

“I have already taken measures regarding this. I’m not going to say what because they think that I can’t take these measures because we would not have any place to send the oil,” Chavez said.

A Nigerian militant commander in the oil-rich southern Niger Delta has told the BBC his group is declaring “total war” on all foreign oil interests.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has given oil companies and their employees until midnight on Friday night to leave the region.

It recently blew up two oil pipelines, held four foreign oil workers hostage and sabotaged two major oilfields.

The group wants greater control of the oil wealth produced on their land.

The warning came as militants and the army exchanged fire after a government helicopter gunship attacked barges allegedly used by smugglers to transport stolen crude oil.
bbc.co.uk

Nigerian military launches attack on targets in the Delta
Military officials said a helicopter gunship equipped with rocket launchers attacked about eight barges used to smuggle stolen crude oil on Wednesday after spotting them on a routine flight in the western delta. The government says it is trying to cut down on oil theft, known locally as “bunkering”.

Militants said local villages had been randomly sprayed with machine gun fire. No casualty figures are available. The operation coincided with a visit by Jack Straw, UK foreign minister, to the delta, where he met oil industry officials to discuss security issues.

Fire razes Shell oil well
PORT HARCOURT–AN oil well operated by Shell 30 kilometres south of Port Harcourt caught fire yesterday 24 hours after militant youths threatened revenge against it for making its facility available for an attack on an Ijaw community in Delta State.

Ijaw leaders said yesterday that the death toll in Wednesday’s helicopter gunship attack on Perezouweikore-gbene had risen to 30, and asked the Federal Government to call the Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta to order.

Shell, defending itself on the allegation of allowing its Osubi airstrip in Warri to be used by the military as base for the attack said it had no control over the use of the airfield.

Fire-fighters were battling the blaze on a well head in the Cawthorne Channel, near Port Harcourt last night, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant said.

Ask Huda Naeem how she intends to use her influence as a newly elected MP for Hamas and she ticks off a list of wrongs done to women in the name of religion.

Forced marriage, honour killings, low pay and girls being kept out of school are her priorities for change in the Palestinian parliament. That is when she is not preparing her 13-year-old son to die in the fight against Israel.

“A lot of things need to change,” she said. “Women in Gaza and the West Bank should be given complete rights. Some women and girls are made to marry someone they don’t want to marry. This is not in our religion, it’s our tradition. In our religion, a woman has a right to choose.

“As a woman and an MP, there are areas I want to concentrate on but that does not mean we have forgotten our struggle for our homeland, and preparing our children to die when the homeland calls for it.”

Mrs Naeem, a 37-year-old social worker at the Islamic University in Gaza City and a mother of four, is one of six women elected to parliament on the Hamas ticket in the Islamist party’s landslide victory last month. They will be sworn in when the new parliament opens today.
guardian.co.uk

A military order that took effect last week bars Palestinians in the West Bank from entering Israel via the roads that Israelis use, even if they are transported by Israelis. Instead, Palestinians must use one of 11 crossing points earmarked for them.

…The order was signed by Major General Yair Naveh, the commander of the IDF forces in the West Bank, on December 15. It authorized the Civil Administration to determine which crossings could be used by non-Israelis, and also to determine “the arrangements that will apply at these crossing points.” In addition, it defined who is an Israeli, using
the same language that is now posted on the signs at the various crossings.
haaretz.com

By the next millennium the global map will have been redrawn by disastrous climate changes, according to a new forecast

AN APOCALYPTIC vision of life 1,000 years from now has been painted by a team of scientists studying the effect of global warming.
If mankind does not put its house in order, temperatures could have risen by 15C (27F) by the year 3000 and sea levels by more than 11 metres (36ft), flooding much of London, the team, from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, says in a report for the Environment Agency. Abrupt changes could make Britain much hotter, or even — such is the uncertainty of the predictions — first colder and then hotter.

This could happen if the North Atlantic current system collapsed, denying Britain the warming effect of the Gulf Stream. Ocean surface temperatures would fall by 3C (5.4F), but as the Arctic sea ice melted, they would rise again by 8C (14.4F) in an abrupt turnabout over a period of no more than about 20 years.
timesonline.co.uk

Climate change: On the edge
A satellite study of the Greenland ice cap shows that it is melting far faster than scientists had feared – twice as much ice is going into the sea as it was five years ago. The implications for rising sea levels – and climate change – could be dramatic.

Yet, a few weeks ago, when I – a Nasa climate scientist – tried to talk to the media about these issues following a lecture I had given calling for prompt reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases, the Nasa public affairs team – staffed by political appointees from the Bush administration – tried to stop me doing so. I was not happy with that, and I ignored the restrictions. The first line of Nasa’s mission is to understand and protect the planet.