Sunday, July 24th
Project Mumbai Makeover
Vilasrao Deshmukh, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra (India) was recently in the US, marketing and showcasing Maharashtra for possible investors. Hopping between New York and the Napa Valley; Microsoft and Hollywood, business delegates and cultural conventions, Deshmukh must be glad to have escaped the acute water and power shortage, dying farmers, agitated bar workers, and growing resistance of the displaced slum dwellers of Mumbai. They have had it worst in "the most industrialized state" of India.
Three months since assuming power in Maharashtra, the United Democratic Front (UDF) -- a coalition led by Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) began its assault on Mumbai's poor. Announcing the "development and beautification plan" for Mumbai, Chief Minister Deshmukh launched a massive demolition drive that rendered 250,000 people homeless by December 2004. Justifying the first round of demolitions, Deshmukh thundered, "Many people will be inconvenienced and will have to make sacrifices if the city has to develop...The situation in Mumbai has deteriorated so much that there is hardly an inch of space left for migrants". Deshmukh's words were much appreciated by the local elite who helped co-construct a rabid rhetoric that demonized slum dwellers. After all, they are in for a free ride-- they don't pay taxes, and what's worst, they are a threat to national security! Vijay Kalam-Patil, the demolitions officer proclaimed, " We want to put the fear of the consequences of migration into these people. We have to restrain them from coming to Mumbai." The migrant poor of Mumbai were to be controlled and the state could afford to forget about their rights.
Full: counterpunch.orgThat's right, allow 'free trade' to wreck the rural economy, causing people to flee to the city for bare survival and then deny them a place there. Zimbabwe is castigated for demolishing slums while India is given carte blanche to enter the nuclear club.
rootsie on 07.24.05 @ 10:15 AM CST [
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Project Mumbai Makeover
Vilasrao Deshmukh, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra (India) was recently in the US, marketing and showcasing Maharashtra for possible investors. Hopping between New York and the Napa Valley; Microsoft and Hollywood, business delegates and cultural conventions, Deshmukh must be glad to have escaped the acute water and power shortage, dying farmers, agitated bar workers, and growing resistance of the displaced slum dwellers of Mumbai. They have had it worst in "the most industrialized state" of India.
Three months since assuming power in Maharashtra, the United Democratic Front (UDF) -- a coalition led by Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) began its assault on Mumbai's poor. Announcing the "development and beautification plan" for Mumbai, Chief Minister Deshmukh launched a massive demolition drive that rendered 250,000 people homeless by December 2004. Justifying the first round of demolitions, Deshmukh thundered, "Many people will be inconvenienced and will have to make sacrifices if the city has to develop...The situation in Mumbai has deteriorated so much that there is hardly an inch of space left for migrants". Deshmukh's words were much appreciated by the local elite who helped co-construct a rabid rhetoric that demonized slum dwellers. After all, they are in for a free ride-- they don't pay taxes, and what's worst, they are a threat to national security! Vijay Kalam-Patil, the demolitions officer proclaimed, " We want to put the fear of the consequences of migration into these people. We have to restrain them from coming to Mumbai." The migrant poor of Mumbai were to be controlled and the state could afford to forget about their rights.
Full: counterpunch.orgThat's right, allow 'free trade' to wreck the rural economy, causing people to flee to the city for bare survival and then deny them a place there. Zimbabwe is castigated for demolishing slums while India is given carte blanche to enter the nuclear club.
rootsie on 07.24.05 @ 10:14 AM CST [
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The Ortega Free Trade Fear Factor
This is showdown time for the Central America Free Trade Agreement. Thanks largely to strong opposition from labor, environmentalists, human rights, and other activist groups, the Bush administration still lacks enough support to ensure victory in a House vote expected between July 27 and 29.
Unable to sell CAFTA on its merits, desperate Republican supporters have had to resort to the fear factor. Their reasoning appears to be that if you can get Americans jittery enough, they will support pretty much any darn thing.
But since Osama bin Laden is hiding somewhere in the hills of Tora Bora instead of the highlands of Guatemala, Republican free traders have had to strain to conjure up an effective monster. The best they could do was Daniel Ortega. Remember him? He's the former Nicaraguan guerrilla fighter-turned-politician who was voted out of office 15 years ago.
Ortega continues to have aspirations of regaining the Presidency, but lost electoral bids to do so in 1996 and 2001. And of course the specter of a Soviet Union-Sandinista alliance is long gone.
It is hard to imagine this former leader of the hemisphere's second-poorest country posing a dire threat to US national security. But listening to Congressional debate over CAFTA, you would almost think that Ortega and his fellow Sandinistas were preparing to march on the White House-arm in arm of course with Fidel Castro and Venezuela's elected President Hugo Chavez.
During Senate debate on June 30, Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe warned his colleagues: "These Communists, these enemies of the United States, Chavez, Ortega, and Castro, are all in opposition to CAFTA. If you want to be on their side, you would vote against CAFTA."
Senator Pat Roberts, a Republican from Kansas, chimed in by declaring: "I do not want to go back to the Nicaraguan situation and Danny Ortega. That is not in the best interests of these countries in the region, and it certainly is not in the best interests of our national security."
Republican John Cornyn of Texas repeated the mantra, stating that "There are literally people waiting to take advantage of America, if we turned our back on these countries [by blocking CAFTA], and to claim that instead we should align our interests with people like Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, and others."
In all, Ortega's name came up 12 times during the Senate's one day of debate, before that body approved the deal by a narrow margin. In the House, where the real battle will be, debate hasn't officially begun yet. But that didn't stop California Congressman David Dreier from playing his Ortega card in a letter to the Washington Post. "Those of us who well remember Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega do not take lightly his fierce campaign to defeat this agreement," Dreier wrote. "We can abandon our friends to poverty, dictatorship and the Ortega vision for the future. Or we can help them to grow, prosper and improve their standard of living."
But Rep. Mike Kirk of Illinois takes the fear-mongering prize. On July 20, he informed House colleagues that Chavez, whom he dubbed "Venezuela's Mussolini," was purchasing weapons "to fight a new war. His war may be in Central America. His agents are already funneling oil money to groups hostile to the United States and to free trade. We in the Congress have a choice to make. We can either send exports to Central America or troops. Next week let us enact a free trade agreement with Central America to lock in democratic growth and stability, and let us make sure that President Hugo Chavez's Venezuelan agents find no fertile ground in America's back yard."
Full: commondreams.org
rootsie on 07.24.05 @ 10:09 AM CST [
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Resort To Fear
by Noam Chomsky
The resort to fear by systems of power to discipline the domestic population has left a long and terrible trail of bloodshed and suffering which we ignore at our peril. Recent history provides many shocking illustrations.
The mid-twentieth century witnessed perhaps the most awful crimes since the Mongol invasions. The most savage were carried out where western civilisation had achieved its greatest splendours. Germany was a leading centre of the sciences, the arts and literature, humanistic scholarship, and other memorable achievements. Prior to World War I, before anti-German hysteria was fanned in the West, Germany had been regarded by American political scientists as a model democracy as well, to be emulated by the West. In the mid-1930s, Germany was driven within a few years to a level of barbarism that has few historical counterparts. That was true, most notably, among the most educated and civilised sectors of the population.
In his remarkable diaries of his life as a Jew under Nazism — escaping the gas chambers by a near miracle — Victor Klemperer writes these words about a German professor friend whom he had much admired, but who had finally joined the pack: “If one day the situation were reversed and the fate of the vanquished lay in my hands, then I would let all the ordinary folk go and even some of the leaders, who might perhaps after all have had honourable intentions and not known what they were doing. But I would have all the intellectuals strung up, and the professors three feet higher than the rest; they would be left hanging from the lamp posts for as long as was compatible with hygiene.”
Klemperer’s reactions were merited, and generalised to a large part of recorded history.
Complex historical events always have many causes. One crucial factor in this case was skillful manipulation of fear. The “ordinary folk” were driven to fear of a Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy to take over the world, placing the very survival of the people of Germany at risk. Extreme measures were therefore necessary, in “self-defence”. Revered intellectuals went far beyond.
...…The rhetorical framework rests on three pillars (Weeks): “the assumption of the unique moral virtue of the United States, the assertion of its mission to redeem the world” by spreading its professed ideals and the ‘American way of life,’ and the faith in the nation’s “divinely ordained destiny”. The theological framework undercuts reasoned debate, and reduces policy issues to a choice between Good and Evil, thus reducing the threat of democracy. Critics can be dismissed as “anti-American,” an interesting concept borrowed from the lexicon of totalitarianism. And the population must huddle under the umbrella of power, in fear that its way of life and destiny are under imminent threat…
Full: zmag.orgThis is probably as far as Chomsky dares to go.
rootsie on 07.24.05 @ 10:05 AM CST [
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Something Happened Between "I Love You" and the Click of the Phone
by Robert Fisk
That fine French historian of the 1914-18 world conflict, Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau, suggested not long ago that the West was the inheritor of a type of warfare of very great violence. "Then, after 1945," he wrote, "... the West externalised it, in Korea, in Algeria, in Vietnam, in Iraq... we stopped thinking about the experience of war and we do not understand its return (to us) in different forms like that of terrorism... We do not want to admit that there is now occurring a different type of confrontation..."
He might have added that politicians - and here I'm referring to Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara - would deliberately refuse to acknowledge this. We are fighting evil. Nothing to do with the occupation of Palestinian land, the occupation of Afghanistan, the occupation of Iraq, the torture at Abu Ghraib and Bagram and Guantanamo. Oh no, indeed. "An evil ideology", a nebulous, unspecified, dark force. That's the problem.
There are two things wrong with this. The first is that once you start talking about "evil", you are talking about religion. Good and evil, God and the Devil. The London suicide bombers were Muslims (or thought they were) so the entire Muslim community in Britain must stand to attention and - as Muslims - condemn them. We "Christians" were not required to do that because we are not Muslims - nor were we required as "Christians" to condemn the Christian Serb slaughter of 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica just over 10 years ago. All we had to do was say sorry for doing nothing at the time. But Muslims, because they are Muslims, must ritually condemn something they had nothing to do with.
But that, I suspect, is the point. Deep down, I wonder if we do not think that their religion does have something to do with all this, that Islam is a backward religion, un-renaissanced, potentially violent. It's not true, but our heritage of orientalism suggests otherwise.
It's weird the way we both despise and envy the "other". Many of those early orientalists showed both disgust and fascination with the East. They loathed the punishments and the pashas, but they rather liked the women; they were obsessed with harems. Westerners found the idea of having more than one wife quite appealing. Similarly, I rather think there are aspects of our Western "decadence" which are of interest to Muslims, even if they ritually condemn them.
...But those who cannot, those who have enjoyed our freedoms but feel guilty for doing so - who can be appalled by the pleasure they have taken in "our" society but equally appalled by the way in which they themselves feel corrupted (especially after a trip to Pakistan for a dose of old-fashioned ritualised religion) have a special problem.
Palestine or Afghanistan or Iraq turn it incendiary. They want both to break out of this world and to express their moral fury and political impotence as they do so. They want, I think, to destroy themselves for their own feelings of guilt and others for the crime of "corrupting" them. Even if that means murdering a few co-religionists and dozens of other innocents.
So on go the backpacks - whoever supplied them is a different matter - and off go the bombs. Something happens, something that takes only a second, between saying "I love you" and then hanging up the phone.
Full: counterpunch.org
rootsie on 07.24.05 @ 09:55 AM CST [
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Barbaric But Not Unexpected
...t is quite a paradox that Blair was the first to infuse the term "barbaric" following the London carnage; a paradox because the barbarism in London had an undeniable kinship with the years of barbarism in Iraq, which continues to unfold in full force.
In May 2003, following protests from human rights groups regarding the British army's use of cluster bombs in and around the Iraqi city of Basra, British officials had nothing but unabashed rationalization as a response.
Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram justified the use of cluster bombs, in an interview with BBC radio, on military grounds, arguing: "Cluster bombs are not illegal. They are effective weapons. They are used in specific circumstances where there is a threat to our troops."
Those "specific circumstances", according to British media, compelled the dropping of 2,000 Israeli-made cluster bombs on Basra and its surroundings in April 2003 alone. Richard Lloyd, Director of Landmine Action, asserted that he had seen maps - provided to the UN by the US military - showing cities that were almost completely masked by a heap of symbols indicating where cluster bombs had been used. "These weapons were used in and around virtually every built-up area where there was major fighting," Lloyd said.
Hundreds of these bombs are still there, not yet detonated and just waiting to go off among hoards of scavenging children, a dreadful and recurring episode in both Afghanistan and Iraq; utterly barbaric indeed.
Full: commondreams.org
rootsie on 07.24.05 @ 09:49 AM CST [
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Scaring Us Senseless
...The audiovisual media, with their ability to push the public's emotional hot buttons, need to play a more responsible role. Of course it is the news media's job to inform the public about the risk and the incidence of terrorism, but they should try to do so without helping terrorists achieve their objective, which is to terrify.
Television images, in all their vividness and specificity, have an extraordinary power to do just that, and to persuade the viewer that a distant risk is clear and present, while a pressing but underreported one is nothing to worry about.
Like pharmaceutical companies, the news media should study the side effects of their product, one of which is the distortion of the viewer's mental risk map. Because of the way the brain is built, images and striking narratives may well be necessary to get our attention. But just as it takes a diamond to cut a diamond, the news industry should find ways to use images and stories to bring us closer to the statistical truth.
Full: nytimes.comThe news industry is doing exactly what it wants to do, which is to create a terrorized people who will believe anything and accept anything.
rootsie on 07.24.05 @ 09:46 AM CST [
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Police swoop on capital's estates as hunt intensifies
The sight of a dozen police riot vans racing off from outside Brixton police station yesterday afternoon was a dramatic signal that Britain's largest Islamist terror manhunt was gathering pace.
Firearms and anti-terrorist officers from across the capital were heading for nearby Tulse Hill, as this area of south London becomes the the centre of the police investigation into last Thursday's failed bomb attacks at Oval, Shepherd's Bush and Warren Street tube stations and on a Number 26 bus in Hackney.
By the early afternoon their target was clear: an address in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill, where it is believed a suspected bomber could be holed up. The scene that followed is by now familiar: armed police in full riot gear, CS gas fired through windows, followed up with a raid by officers in gas masks.
This area of south London, stretching from Stockwell south through Brixton to Tulse Hill, was beginning to look like a war zone. Neighbours described the scene, as police set up an emergency cordon, trapping a children's party inside the police tapes.
In the early hours of yesterday morning, police had swooped on a Stockwell council estate to arrest a Somali suspect who was led away to join another, thought to be Ethiopian, who was seized on Friday at a nearby estate. Both are being questioned in Paddington Green high security police station. A raid on an address in west Kilburn earlier in the day also targeted a house occupied by a Somali family, The Observer has established.
The arrests have led police and the intelligence services to the conclusion that they are now hunting a cell with its origins in the lawless war-torn chaos of the Horn of Africa, long known as a haven for terror groups.
In a dramatic development last night, the investigation unearthed the first tentative suggestion of a link between the cell and the 7 July bombers who killed 52 in attacks in London. A connection has been made between individuals connected to the raids and a whitewater rafting trip to north Wales last year attended by the Leeds bombers, Shehzad Tanweer and Mohammed Sidique Khan.
Stockwell is an ill-defined district where the urban middle classes mix with recent immigrants from the world's war zones, long established Caribbeans and the Portuguese community who have made the area their own.
But that all changed at 10am on Friday morning when police chased a further suspect on to a train at Stockwell underground station, wrestled him to the ground and shot him five times in the head.
Full:guardian.co.ukNow the magic bullets have moved from the young man's torso to his head. And there's war in the projects, which is nothing new, except for the fact that now it's 'justified.' "The lawless war-torn chaos of the Horn of Africa..." dark-skinned men with 'primitive' bombs (downgraded from 'military-grade explosives).
rootsie on 07.24.05 @ 09:09 AM CST [
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Two bomb plots 'linked'
Links have been uncovered between the two teams of bombers who have brought terror to the streets of London over the past two weeks, say security sources.
Police now believe some of the men they are pursuing for last week's abortive attacks - on Shepherd's Bush, Oval and Warren Street tube stations and on a No 26 bus in Hackney - attended a whitewater rafting trip at the same centre as two of the 7 July bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer.
This raises the distinct possibility that the two operations were connected as part of a larger plan to bring carnage to the capital.
Evidence discovered in the rucksacks left behind by the failed bombers led police to three addresses in London. When investigators cross-referenced them with the electoral register they discovered names that tallied with those of individuals who attended the outdoor adventure course in Snowdonia last summer.
Scotland Yard has con-firmed the explosive used in the 21 July bomb attempts bore a similarity to that used in the earlier attacks. Initial tests on a package found in bushes in Little Wormwood Scrubs, north-west London, yesterday show it may contain the same explosive.
The Observer understands that investigators are examining the possibility that the trip to Bala in North Wales was used as a bonding experience.
...Scotland Yard has
con-firmed the explosive used in the 21 July bomb attempts bore a similarity to that used in the earlier attacks. Initial tests on a package found in bushes in Little Wormwood Scrubs, north-west London, yesterday show it may contain the same explosive.
Full: guardian.co.ukOy veh. A 'bonding experience.' I think the bumbling stupidity of this investigation is a convenient way of explaining away the numerous holes in this story, not least of which no 'credible' terrorist group has even claimed responsibility for these bombings. The irrationality of 'suicide bombers' is accepted unquestioningly, while any discussion of who might plan and execute terror in their own clear interest is completely absent. The same is true in Iraq. What self-respecting 'freedom fighter' is going to go around blowing up his own people?Scotland Yard Challenged by Missteps in Bombing Inquiry Scotland Yard's extraordinary reversal from assertions made just 24 hours earlier was the latest in a series of incomplete characterizations about the direction of the inquiry and, in some cases, public misstatements about the evidence. The missteps included statements about the timing of the bombs on July 7, whether the bombers in the initial attack had died with their bombs or were at large, and swiftly changing their assessments of certain suspects' importance.
The admission carries profound consequences for the Metropolitan Police's complex antiterrorist investigation, which police officials have characterized as the most difficult in Scotland Yard's history. It raised serious questions about the police's shoot-to-kill policy on suicide bombers and threatened officers' morale. More important, it could undermine public confidence in the police's handling of the case - a serious problem in a case where the public is being asked directly to participate in the investigation. The outrage has been strong in the Muslim community, one of the most crucial in the quest for identities and clues.
...At two consecutive news conferences, senior police officials inaccurately reported that the first bomb exploded at 8:51 a.m., on a train near Liverpool Street station, on the edge of the city's financial district. They said the second bomb exploded five minutes later, at 8:56 a.m., on a train at Russell Square station. And the third, they said, hit a train at 9:17 a.m. as it approached Edgware Road.
On the evening of July 8, cellphone video aired by the BBC showed that the bomb at Edgware Road had exploded at 8:51 a.m. - not at 9:17 a.m., as the police had said.
On July 9, the police acknowledged their mistake and revealed that the bombs had exploded within 50 seconds of each other. Their initial estimate of the times that the bombs exploded was mistakenly pegged to when the first emergency calls were placed at each subway station.
One of the most important questions, in the early days, was whether the attacks were launched by suicide bombers. If true, it would be a first in the history of Western Europe.
But for several days, the police denied repeated questions by reporters about whether the bombers had died in the attacks. It was not until July 12 that the police said they had identified the bombers, but did not release their names. Though their identities emerged gradually from other sources in the ensuing days, two days later, the police said only two suspected bombers had been formally identified. On July 15, Scotland Yard identified the four bombers who had died in the attacks.
The police have still steadfastly avoided calling the men suicide bombers, possibly because of a live theory inside Scotland Yard that the men were duped into carrying the bombs on board the trains.
There was also much interest in the makeup of the bombs, as it is one of the most important forensic clues that investigators have to help them solve a case. On July 9, two days after the bombings, the Metropolitan Police made a preliminary conclusion that the bombs were of "military grade." They passed the information on to their counterparts in Europe and the United States, and some news organizations reported it.
But within days, Scotland Yard determined that the bombs were powerful but crude, homemade explosive devices made with TATP, a mixture of widely available chemicals, including acetone, hydrogen peroxide and mineral acid.
A senior Scotland Yard official said Saturday the police's initial assessment was not released publicly by the police, and he stressed that it was only a tentative conclusion leaked to the press by others. "It's true our assessment changed," the official said, "but we can't really be held to account for the premature announcements made by others."
As police reversed their earlier conclusion about the slain man's connection to the inquiry, they also retreated from an optimistic assessment of another aspect of the investigation.
On Friday night, the police arrested two men held under the Terrorism Act, a development that they said was "promising." One senior police official said one of the suspects might be one of the would-be suicide bombers who had attempted to carry out Thursday's attacks.
But by late Saturday evening, police officials gloomily cautioned reporters that the two men may not be the would-be suicide bombers after all.
For his part, Sir Ian, the police commissioner, said nothing about the arrests or the man shot by police officers the day before. In brief remarks to reporters outside Scotland Yard on Saturday, he hailed the men and women conducting the investigation, saying they were exhausted but their spirits remained high. And he praised the investigators for their hard work and the "fast progress" they had made in the investigation.
rootsie on 07.24.05 @ 09:00 AM CST [
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Poll: Americans Say World War III Likely
Six in 10 Americans said they think such a war is likely, while only one-third of the Japanese said so, according to polling done in both countries for The Associated Press and Kyodo, the Japanese news service.
"Man's going to destroy man eventually. When that will be, I don't know," said Gaye Lestaeghe of Freeport, La.
Some question whether that war has arrived, with fighting dragging on in Afghanistan and Iraq as part of the U.S. campaign against terrorism.
"I feel like we're in a world war right now," said Susan Aser, a real estate agent from Rochester, N.Y.
The Japanese were less likely than Americans to expect a world war, less worried about the threat from North Korea and less inclined to say a first strike with nuclear weapons could be justified.
Full: news.yahoo.com
rootsie on 07.24.05 @ 08:44 AM CST [
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Friday, July 22nd
Security services link explosives with bombs that killed 52 a fortnight ago
Devices recovered from the scenes of Thursday's failed terrorist attacks in London bore striking similarities to material found in the wake of the July 7 bombings.
Forensic experts have not yet established the exact chemical make-up of material found in Leeds and Luton in the wake of the bombings two weeks ago that killed 52 victims and the bombers. But security sources told the Guardian that it was markedly similar in appearance to the material found in containers inside four rucksacks carried by the bombers involved in Thursday's attacks.
A source described the substance as "liquid mixed with a lump of matter".
The material used in the July 7 attacks was at first rumoured to be military or commercial explosives. But the discoveries in a car abandoned by the bombers in Luton and in a flat connected with the bombers in Leeds shifted the emphasis to home-made explosives.
It was then suggested that the substance could be acetone peroxide, possibly TATP, nicknamed Mother of Satan because of its extreme volatility. However, police sources say the substance still has not been positively identified.
...But home made explosives such as TATP degrade over time, which could explain why Thursday's bombs malfunctioned.
It is believed that the detonators on three of the bombs recovered on Thursday exploded, but failed to ignite the main explosives, while the detonator in the fourth device did not even go off.
If the explosives do turn out to be made from the same recipe it will not necessarily prove a definitive link between the two bomb gangs, but would strongly suggest that they may have been a part of the same loosely connected network.
Full: guardian.co.ukThat last paragraph is a doozy, and 'suggests' the absurdly tangential nature of all this evidence we're having thrown at us. Amazing isn't it, that 4 out of 4 bombs failed to detonate. Hmmm. Calculating the minimum of casualties for the maximum impact of fear. That way when you shoot a kid dead like a dog for jumping a turnstile nobody makes a peep. Why are you going to empty 5 shots into the torso of someone you think has a bomb wrapped around his waist?Police Shoot Suspected Suicide Bomber ...At Stockwell Station, armed officers opened fire on the suspect after he hurdled a ticket barrier and raced along a platform.
Police screamed at passengers to evacuate and are thought to have shot the suspect as he stumbled on to a train.
Alarmed onlookers said they saw up to 10 plain-clothed officers chasing an Asian-looking man before opening fire.
Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair said the shooting was "directly linked" to ongoing anti-terrorist invetigations in the capital.
He said the man had failed to comply with instructions from police before he was shot dead.
The public should not approach these men and should dial 999 immediately if they know of their whereabouts, a spokesman said.
Witness Mark Whitby was on the train as he saw a big man wearing a large coat and "looking absolutely petrified" lurch through the doors.
Admitting to being "totally distraught", he went on: "He half-tripped, was half-pushed to the floor.
"The policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand, he held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him."
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We can confirm that just after 10am armed officers shot a male at Stockwell Underground station.
"A man was challenged by officers and subsequently shot. London Ambulance Service attended the scene. He was pronounced dead at the scene."
Police are believed to be under orders to shoot to kill if they believe someone is about to detonate a bomb.
Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said: "The officer or officers involved in this clearly felt this suspect was about to detonate a bomb."
Three eyewitnesses were taken to a nearby veterinary surgery by police before being taken away for interview.
rootsie on 07.22.05 @ 11:15 PM CST [
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One in four Muslims sympathises with motives of terrorists
...The vast majority of British Muslims condemn the London bombings but a substantial minority are clearly alienated from modern British society and some are prepared to justify terrorist acts.
The divisions within the Muslim community go deep. Muslims are divided over the morality of the London bombings, over the extent of their loyalty to this country and over how Muslims should respond to recent events.
Most Muslims are evidently moderate and law-abiding but by no means all are.
YouGov sought to gauge the character of the Muslim community's response to the events of July 7. As the figures in the chart show, 88 per cent of British Muslims clearly have no intention of trying to justify the bus and Tube murders.
However, six per cent insist that the bombings were, on the contrary, fully justified.
Six per cent may seem a small proportion but in absolute numbers it amounts to about 100,000 individuals who, if not prepared to carry out terrorist acts, are ready to support those who do.
Moreover, the proportion of YouGov's respondents who, while not condoning the London attacks, have some sympathy with the feelings and motives of those who carried them out is considerably larger - 24 per cent.
A substantial majority, 56 per cent, say that, whether or not they sympathise with the bombers, they can at least understand why some people might want to behave in this way.
YouGov also asked whether or not its Muslim respondents agreed or disagreed with Tony Blair's description of the ideas and ideology of the London bombers as "perverted and poisonous".
Again, while a large majority, 58 per cent, agree with him, a substantial minority, 26 per cent, are reluctant to be so dismissive.
The responses indicate that Muslim men are more likely than Muslim women to be alienated from the mainstream and that the young are more likely to be similarly alienated than the old.
Full: telegraph.co.ukAs evidenced by events today, open season has been declared on young non-white males. The pictures of the 4 suspects reflect the entire diversity of non-whites in the UK.
rootsie on 07.22.05 @ 11:14 PM CST [
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Dozens killed in Egyptian blasts
At least 45 people have been killed and more than 130 wounded in a string of explosions in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, police said.
The first explosion took place in the Old Market area, popular with tourists.
Other blasts followed in the nearby area of Naama Bay, which is packed with hotels. Witnesses said a four-star hotel was heavily damaged.
Britons, Dutch, Qataris, Kuwaitis and Egyptians were among the casualties, police sources said.
Police sources said initial reports suggested there had been at least four and possibly seven car bombs.
Full: bbc.co.uk
rootsie on 07.22.05 @ 10:57 PM CST [
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Scientists worried by riot control ray gun
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists are questioning the safety of a Star Wars-style riot control ray gun due to be deployed in Iraq next year.
The Active Denial System weapon, classified as "less lethal" by the Pentagon, fires a 95-gigahertz microwave beam at rioters to cause heating and intolerable pain in less than five seconds.
The idea is people caught in the beam will rapidly try to move out of it and therefore break up the crowd.
But New Scientist magazine reported on Wednesday that during tests carried out at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, participants playing the part of rioters were told to remove glasses and contact lenses to protect their eyes.
In another test they were also told to remove metal objects like coins from their clothing to avoid local hot spots developing on their skin.
"What happens if someone in a crowd is unable for whatever reason to move away from the beam," asked Neil Davison, coordinator of the non-lethal weapons research project at Britain's Bradford University.
"How do you ensure that the dose doesn't cross the threshold for permanent damage? Does the weapon cut out to prevent overexposure?," he added.
The magazine said a vehicle-mounted version of the weapon named Sheriff was scheduled for service in Iraq in 2006 and that U.S. Marines and police were both working on portable versions.
yahoo.com/news
rootsie on 07.22.05 @ 10:36 PM CST [
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License To Kill: Police Murder In Broad Daylight and Nobody Batters an Eyelid
The news this morning that a 'suspected suicide bomber' had been shot dead at a London train station and that other house raids had resulted in individuals being shot to death by police has been received with barely a mumur of questioning as to who these individuals were and why police needed to use deadly force.
Reuters is now quoting Sky News in saying that the man shot five times at Stockwell was not one of the would-be suicide bombers who attempted to detonate bombs on Thursday and whose CCTV photos have been released.
Experts told the BBC that the shooting was likely carried out by special forces, although eyewitnesses also said police were involved in the pursuit.
The man was pursued, tripped, pushed to the ground and then shot five times in the torso area. If the police and special forces pursuing the man knew he had a bomb that he was potentially about to detonate then why would they risk setting the bomb off by shooting at it?
BBC quoted Roy Ramm, former Met Police specialist operations commander, as saying,
"The fact is that when you're dealing with suicide bombers they only way you can stop them effectively - and protect yourself - is to try for a head-shot," he said.
Former government intelligence analyst Crispin Black agreed there was no other way of stopping someone who was an "immediate threat to life".
So here we can establish that if the police suspect this guy had a bomb strapped to him, they would go for a head shot. Therefore we can conclude that the police knew he didn't have a bomb so they shot him in the stomach and chest area.
So then why does BBC contradict itself by quoting Professor Michael Clarke, professor of defence studies at King's College London, as saying,
"The fact that he was shot in this way strongly suggests that it was someone the authorities knew and suspected he was carrying explosives on him."
Excuse me? We were just told that the only safe way to deal with a suicide bomber is to go for a head shot, otherwise you run a high risk of setting the bomb off. But now they flip it 180 degrees and tell us the opposite, that they were right to shoot in the area where the explosives would be. This doesn't make any sense.
This is a blatant attempt to justify the cold blooded pursuit and murder of a man that was not one of the suspected suicide bombers involved in yesterday's attacks and a man who the police knew did not have explosives strapped to his body, which is why they shot him in the torso area.
And what of the witness reports of a bomb belt and wires coming out of the man's jacket? They seem to have been swept under the rug. The modus operandi is simple. Put out the story that this guy was a suicide bomber with wires hanging off him about to blow a train up and the public have no problem in accepting the response of the police in killing him. The later retraction that he was not a suicide bomber goes under the radar as the British population prepares to go on a Friday night drink binge or curl up and fester in front of the television.
So these are the new rules we have to live our lives by? If you're late for the bus or train and are seen running then the police can just mow you down no questions asked?
If, as in the case of this individual, you're wearing a heavy coat on a relatively hot day (and it certainly hasn't been as hot today in England as it was last week) then that's also a sure fire sign that you're about to blow yourself up?
What about people from scorching hot climates who haven't adapted to the British weather? What Brits call hot, someone from Pakistan would call mild.
It appears that law enforcement has been granted the same powers as President Bush. If the suspect is defined as an enemy combatant or a terrorist they can be located and killed on the spot. No evidence, no trial, no questions asked.
The British public needs to ask serious questions about who is really behind these bombings and what these outrageous new police abuses mean for the future of freedom in this country.
prisonplanet.tvAnother Phony Al-Qaeda Group Claims Responsibility For Latest London Bombings A group linked to al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the latest London bombings, as forensic teams examine the rucksack bombs found on a bus and in Tube trains.
The group, Abu Hafs al Masri Brigade, also claimed responsibility for the explosions on July 7.
The statement's authenticity could not be immediately verified and some doubt has been cast on the group's previous claims.
Abu Hafs al Masri Brigade was described by the Boston Globe as a "phantom organization." The same group claimed responsibility for the Madrid train bombing.
There is no evidence that the group even exists. They have claimed responsibility for everything from the 2003 blackout to car bombings in Iraq, yet in no case is there any proof of their involvement.
Ben Venzke, CEO of IntelCenter, a private company that specializes in analyzing terrorist messages for government agencies, said: "They started claiming responsibility for just about everything in the world. We've never been able to determine if it is just one person sitting at a computer having fun or if it really is a group."
rootsie on 07.22.05 @ 10:32 PM CST [
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Thursday, July 21st
Police Begin Checking Bags on NYC Subways
NEW YORK -- Police on Thursday began random searches of bags and packages carried by people entering city subways, a new security measure announced after another round of bomb attacks in London.
"We just live in a world where, sadly, these kinds of security measures are necessary," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "Are they intrusive? Yes, a little bit. But we are trying to find that right balance."
The inspections began Thursday on a small-scale basis in at least one location in Manhattan, where a cluster of officers was seen stopping five men over a 15-minute period as they entered a subway at evening rush hour. In each instance, the officers peered briefly into the men's bags, then waved them through.
Full-scale inspections are scheduled to be in place by rush hour Friday.
Passengers carrying bags will be selected at random before they pass through turnstiles, and those who refuse to be searched won't be allowed to ride, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
Full: washingtonpost.com
rootsie on 07.21.05 @ 08:33 PM CST [
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Bomb 'mastermind' was victim of name confusion
A man widely reported to have slipped into Britain to "mastermind" the London bombings was an innocent Pakistani who happened to have a similar name to a suspected al-Qa'ida leader.
The man, in his 30s, was the subject of intense media speculation surrounding his visit to the UK, which culminated in him flying out of London the day before the attacks. His presence in the country, apparently unmonitored, led to criticism of MI5.
However, The Independent has learnt that the man had no role in the attacks. Inquiries in the past week have discovered that the man was an innocent Pakistani traveller who had a similar name to an al-Qa'ida terrorist who was on a watch list of several foreign security agencies.
A similar mix-up is understood to be behind the claims by US intelligence that Germaine Lindsay, 19, the bomber who carried out the King's Cross attack, was on a British watch list. This was because the "fourth" bomber was wrongly identified in the United States as Lindsay Jermaine - someone with a similar name to a terrorist suspect.
Scotland Yard is concentrating on establishing the movements of the four bombers from Leeds and Aylesbury, and what explosives they used.
Sniffer dogs are being used on the Tube to detect explosives. Dozens of dogs will be deployed throughout the London Underground system and the police may also introduce random checks using metal and bomb detectors on the Underground.
* Police have until Saturday to continue questioning a 29-year-old man arrested in West Yorkshire last week in connection with the bombings. He is the only person to have been arrested so far in Britain over the attacks.
Full: Independent.co.ukNotice, they don't print his name. And what happened to all that backstory, and to the 'suicide belt' full of explosives he was purportedly walking arounf Karachi with?(see below earlier today) And then they throw the Germaine Lindsay stuff in to boot. A deliberate disinformation campaign. Sick and sicker. The mini bomb blasts today provide a good diversion. The Independent pronounces London "A City of Fear." Fear is indeed the name of the game. Fearful people will buy any crap.
rootsie on 07.21.05 @ 08:30 PM CST [
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London attacked again; police confirm 4 blasts
LONDON - Explosions struck three London Underground stations and a bus at midday Thursday in a chilling but less deadly replay of the suicide bombings that killed 56 people two weeks ago.
Only one person was reported wounded, but the lunch-hour explosions caused major shock and disruption in the capital and were hauntingly similar to the July 7 bombings by four attackers.
The London police commissioner confirmed Thursday that four explosions took place in what he described as “a very serious incident.”
“We’ve had four explosions — four attempts at explosions,” Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair said outside police headquarters at Scotland Yard.
“At the moment the casualty numbers appear to be very low ... the bombs appear to be smaller” than those detonated July 7.
At a news gathering,
Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed for calm. He said the people behind the incidents are trying to "scare people" and "make them anxious."Blair said police were hoping to get the city's transit system "back to normal as quickly as possible."
Chase
Minutes before the prime minister spoke, police with their weapons drawn escorted a man away from the gates at the end of Downing Street.
A police officer drew a firearm and aimed it at a target beyond the range of television cameras. Another officer then led away a man whose black shirt was undone. The man also wore black trousers and appeared to be of Asian or Middle Eastern origin.
Meantime, police were searching a London hospital Thursday for a man wearing a blue shirt with wires protruding from a hole in the back, a TV report said.
An internal memo at University College Hospital in north London urged staff to watch for the man, described as a black or Asian male, about 6-feet-2, Sky News television reported.
One witness told Sky TV that a fellow subway passenger told him a backpack exploded at the Warren Street station and there were reports of smoke.
Sky TV reported that police said no chemical agents were involved in the explosions.
Explosions also were reported at the Shepherds Bush and Oval stations.
Emergency teams were sent to all three stations after the incidents, which began at 12:38 p.m.
Witnesses said they had seen what could have been a would-be bomber running away after dropping a rucksack on one of the trains.
“We all got off on the platform and the guy just ran and started running up the escalator,” one witness who gave her name as Andrea told the BBC.
“Everyone was screaming for someone to stop him. He ran past me...and he ran out of the station. In fact he left a bag on the train,” she said.
Passengers were evacuated off a bus in Hackney, east London, and police cordoned off streets nearby. The bus company said a blast blew out the windows of the bus but a police officer on the scene said there were no signs of damage.
A police officer told Reuters: “The bus driver heard a bang at the back of the bus. He thought it was probably a vehicle that had hit him.
“He stopped at a nearby bus stop and saw a suspect package at the back of the bus.”
The fire brigade put on protective clothing before moving towards the bus.
Closed-circuit TV cameras on Hackney Road showed the No. 26 bus immobilized at a stop with its indicator lights flashing. The area around the bus had been cordoned off.
Full: msnbc.msn.com
rootsie on 07.21.05 @ 11:26 AM CST [
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More Explosions in London-psy-ops in progress
In the early confusion about what is actually happening in London, several things are already clear.
- This immediately stalls questions about the first bombing. The mainstream media were finally beginning to highlight the fact that the government's official story did not fit together. This takes those issues off the front pages.
- This further promulgates the fearmongering and creates a pliable public that is willing to accept draconian anti-terror laws. They are trying to turn us into Israel, with an alert or a bombing every fortnight.
- On the very day that the Patriot Act is due to be renewed, Bush can use the alert level to grease the skids and bully Congress into re-authorizing the bill.
Related: Bush sees London attacks as reason for Patriot Act
Some early reports from the scene of the incidents are very interesting.
Reports are that Arabs were seen running from the sitesof the explosion. London's population is 20% Arab. If a bomb exploded near you, would you run? One of the Arabs is reported as saying "what is wrong with these people?" which suggests he was just scared but was immediately identified as a scapegoat.
Sky News is showing scenes of random Arabs being arrested. Watch for the fearmongering of 'four terrorists on the loose waiting to attack' - this will enable emergency stop and search powers to be used. How likely is it that all four bombs would fail to detonate?
ITN news reported that one of the suspected suicide bombers was arrested and taken into Whitehall. Why would somebody so potentially dangerous be taken into a government building and not to the police station?
Sky News reported that 'something was in the air' and that several stations had been closed due to an alert at 11am.
BBC reported that one of the individuals' rucksacks exploded and he looked surprised and dismayed. Who is planting these devices in people's luggage? Or are these people copycats?
Sky News reported that Tony Blair was already in a crisis meeting in an underground bunker which overlapped with the alert. Another case of preparing to 'control' the chaos as it unfolded?
Sky News also reports Blair was set to meet with MI5 and MI6 as well as Secret Service later today. This suggests Blair's schedule was planned ahead of time to coincide with these incidents.
There are already 'Atta passport' type stories of Arabs planting the bombs and running away and being chased by members of the public. This immediately creates the psy-ops stroyboard that this is the work of Al-Qaeda.
The Israeli government is renowned for pulling off these dummy bombings to keep their population in a state of fear.
Full: prisonplanet.co
rootsie on 07.21.05 @ 10:59 AM CST [
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Blair consults security chiefs over new powers
Tony Blair will today meet senior intelligence officers and police chiefs to discuss what extra powers may be needed in the wake of the July 7 London bombings.
Ministers are already fast-tracking three new offences into law with the support of the opposition Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Mr Blair wants to know if more can be done.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair was expected to be among those to attend.
The controversial issue of whether evidence from phone-tapping should be admissible in court is likely to be discussed.
The government announced yesterday that extremists who use radical preaching, websites or inflammatory articles to incite others to commit acts of terrorism will face automatic vetting before being allowed into the country.
The home secretary, Charles Clarke, said officials would draw up a list of "unacceptable" activities intended to promote or provoke terrorism, in the wake of the London bombings, which killed 56 people and injured hundreds more.
Full: guardian.co.ukD.C. considers random searches “The suggestion that we're just going to do it randomly literally invites abuse and focusing on people who for subjective and unverifiable reasons are more suspect, which means that their skin is a different color.”
US and UK don't need the pretext of terrorism to curtail the civil liberties of their citizens, but it does make it easier. Whoever is behind 7/7 has far bigger fish to fry.
rootsie on 07.21.05 @ 07:58 AM CST [
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"Mastermind" arrested?
British Seeking Cleric's Top Aide in Connection With July 7 Attack LONDON, July 20 - The police investigating the terrorist bombings here have begun a worldwide hunt for a former aide to one of Britain's most militant Islamic clerics who they believe may have played a key role in the July 7 attacks, according to British, European and American intelligence and law enforcement officials.
The man, identified as Haroon Rashid Aswat, 31, originally from Dewsbury in north-central England, was a senior aide to Abu Hamza al-Masri, the blind, one-armed militant cleric who preached at the Finsbury Park mosque in north London until his arrest in April 2004. Mr. Masri, who urged young men to wage jihad in Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond, is now facing extradition to the United States to face terrorism-related charges.
Several intelligence and law enforcement officials said they believed that Mr. Aswat was also involved in a plan to set up a training camp for Al Qaeda in Oregon six years ago.
A theory now being pursued by Scotland Yard is that Mr. Aswat provided the four British bombers with support for the coordinated attacks in London's public transportation system, killing 56 people and wounding 700, several senior intelligence and law enforcement officials said Wednesday night.
Those officials declined to say what specifically made them believe that Mr. Aswat was linked to the bombers, all of whom died in the attacks.
One official noted that Mr. Aswat was raised in Dewsbury, the same area where Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, one of the four bombers, lived. On Wednesday, Mr. Aswat's family said he had not lived at the family's home near Dewsbury for 10 years.
Mr. Aswat's whereabouts are unknown, but several senior investigators said they were almost certain that he was not in Britain now.
Officials say he is of Pakistani descent, like three of the four bombers, but his family's neighbors said the family was from Gujarat, India.
"Nobody's tying him in or making him the mastermind yet," a senior American official said. "There's no real substantiation yet. But people are looking at some of his confederates and connections, and saying that it's a possibility."
An American official and two European officials said Mr. Aswat spent several weeks in Bly, Ore., in late 1999 and early 2000, trying to help several associates establish a Qaeda training camp there. Although he was not identified by name in court papers in the Oregon case, several American officials said he was an unindicted co-conspirator in the indictment of James Ujaama, who pleaded guilty to aiding the Taliban. Mr. Ujaama, 39, is now the leading witness in the United States terrorism indictment of Mr. Masri, American officials said.
Two American officials cautioned it was not fully confirmed that the Mr. Aswat being sought was the same man implicated in the Oregon case.
Mr. Aswat is believed to have met Osama bin Laden sometime in the late 1990's, senior investigators said. He trained at Qaeda-run camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, they said.
In recent days, Mr. Aswat has emerged as a suspect of intense interest to investigators searching for a principal plotter behind the London bombings, according to interviews with 10 officials. Scotland Yard says it believes that the four British bombers had logistical, financial and technical support from several accomplices, and Mr. Aswat had the ability to provide that kind of leadership, two senior American officials and two European officials said.
The hunt for Mr. Aswat was especially evident this week in Pakistan, where a senior government official said two men with names similar to Mr. Aswat's were arrested and released when neither proved to be the man they were looking for.
Another Pakistani intelligence official said Mr. Aswat had been under criminal investigation in Britain since 1999, but British officials declined to comment on that. The Metropolitan Police have said previously that a man on Britain's security "watch list" entered England by ferry two weeks before the July 7 bombing attacks and then left either the morning of the bombings, or the night before from Heathrow Airport, officials have said. Officials declined to say Wednesday whether Mr. Aswat was that man.
Several senior European and American officials said it was reported that Mr. Aswat died during an American bombing raid in Afghanistan in late 2001, but investigators now say that he is still alive.
It's worth resurrecting him from the dead for this. How is it he was allowed into England a few weeks ago? Clearly, there are advantages to being dead.Pakistan questions Briton on 'key role' in bombings Security officials in Pakistan were yesterday questioning a British man arrested on suspicion of playing a key role in the 7/7 bombings in which 56 people died.
Haroon Rashid Aswat was carrying a belt packed with explosives, a British passport and a substantial amount of cash when he was seized, according to intelligence sources in the country.
His name is understood to have been passed to Pakistan's security agency, Inter Services Intelligence, by British authorities after it emerged after an examination of the mobile phones used by the four bombers.
The arrested man is thought to have been born in Dewsbury and grown up in Batley, West Yorkshire, a short distance from the three suicide bombers who were from Leeds, and the fourth, who grew up in Huddersfield. Counter-terrorism officials in the UK said they believed the detainee and a 30-year-old from Yorkshire, who has the same name, are probably the same person.
The Briton being questioned in Pakistan was also hunted by the FBI for several years after he allegedly travelled from London to Oregon in November 1999 in an attempt to establish an al-Qaida training camp. That search was scaled down, however, after the agency heard that he had been killed while fighting for the Taliban in Afghanistan.
It was unclear whether Aswat was also the name used by the so-called "fifth man", a known al-Qaida suspect who was reported to have slipped into the UK through an east coast seaport several weeks before the attacks, but who was not placed under surveillance and flew out on July 6.
UK counter-terrorism officials said they were "interested" in the British detainee, but added that there was no firm evidence to link him to the blasts on three tube trains and a bus two weeks ago.
Mr Aswat was being held for questioning in Islamabad last night after being flown by helicopter from the small town of Sargodha, 110 miles west of Lahore, where he was arrested four days ago. He is expected to also be questioned by British intelligence officials based in the city.
A second Briton, Zeeshan Siddiqui, 24, from Hounslow, west London, is also being questioned in Pakistan about an alleged plot to bomb targets in the UK. Mr Siddiqui, who was arrested in Peshawar on May 18, was a close schoolfriend of Asif Hanif, also from Hounslow, who killed himself and three other people in a suicide bomb attack on a bar in Tel Aviv in April 2003.
Police had rounded up about 200 men in raids on mosques and madrasas within 24 hours of Tony Blair saying he was anxious to see Pakistan crack down on militant teaching in religious schools.
Some were being questioned about possible links with the three suicide bombers from Leeds - Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, and Hasib Hussain, 18 - whose families originated in Pakistan, and who are known to have travelled there late last year.
Several security sources in the country, who did not wish to be named, said Mr Aswat had been arrested when police first began rounding up suspected militants. "We have arrested Haroon Rashid in Sargodha three days ago," said one security official.
Pakistan's interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, and information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, yesterday denied the arrest. Intelligence sources insisted, however, that Mr Aswat had been detained. One source close to the investigation told the Guardian that he had links with Jaish-i-Muhammad, one of four major Islamist groups active in the country. Other sources say that he is linked to al-Qaida.
As well as the belt packed with explosives and the British passport, Mr Aswat was said by one of the security officials to be in possession of around 1m rupees (£9,650).
The name Haroon Rashid Aswat came to the attention of security services around the world after a man by that name allegedly attempted to establish an al-Qaida training camp in Oregon almost six years ago.
According to documents lodged with a federal court in New York, he was one of two men who travelled from London to assist a local man, James Ujaama, in setting up a "jihad training camp" near the town of Bly. After his arrest, Ujaama, 39, a convert to Islam previously known as James Ernest Thompson, cooperated with the FBI and was jailed for two years after he admitted providing aid to the Taliban.
The FBI is understood to have believed Mr Aswat was killed while fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan, but has continued searching for Oussama Kassir, a resident of Sweden, who is said to have been the second man who travelled from London.
Briton Named as Bomb Planner; Met With Bin LadenWed Jul 20 2005 20:20:53 ET
Terror investigators hunting the London bombing mastermind are to question a suspected Al Qaeda planner held in Pakistan.
British-born Haroon Rashid Aswad was seized at a religious school with a suicide bomb belt, explosives and GBP 13,000 in cash.Security sources in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, claim he had up to 20 telephone conversations with London bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer. One of these is believed to have been just hours before the blasts.
The UK's DAILY MAIL reports on Thursday: Security sources say he trained at an Afghan camp which was visited by Osama Bin Laden and that he is linked to two of Bin Laden's planners and an Al Qaeda suspect held in America.
U.S. investigators have been told that Aswad attended the Khalden camp in Afghanistan, favoured by foreign terror trainees. British shoe bomber Richard Reid is among those who attended the camp and it has been reported that London bomber Khan also went there.
Wow this guy has all the stuff: US connections, Osama, Richard Reid, religious school, AND a 'suicide belt. Dead too.
rootsie on 07.21.05 @ 07:45 AM CST [
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Wednesday, July 20th
ROBERTS IS A FRIEND TO CORPORATE AND ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL INTERESTS
Roberts Coauthored Amicus Brief in Support of Mountain Top Removal.
Roberts' Lobbying Efforts Cost the American People $500 Million a Year.
Roberts Argued that Private Citizens Do Not Have the Right to Sue Over Environmental Regulations.
Full: americablog.blogspot.comThis makes Roberts a good nominee for both the Democrats and Republicans.
rootsie on 07.20.05 @ 08:07 AM CST [
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Mainstream Media Reports "Suicide Theory" Difficult to Swallow
Here are several mainstream newspapers that are now saying what we've been saying all along: It simply doesn't add up that a group of otherwise normal and quiet individuals with families and children would blow themselves up as part of a terrorist attack.
These patsies didn't have any real motive. Who had the motive? Who benefited from the attack? Tryannical governments everywhere, most especially in the UK and the US, where these events have increased support for Blair and Bush and greased the skids for more intense "anti-terror" legislation.
Its very exciting to see mainstream publications not buying into the propaganda. Never before have so many people witnessed a government-backed terrorist attack and immediately seen through it. The results of the bombings have not been what the Globalists expected. People are awake or waking. They refuse to swallow the lie and its forcing the real perpitrators of this atrocity to change their story.
Full: infowars.com
rootsie on 07.20.05 @ 08:01 AM CST [
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Sunnis Suspend Membership on Iraqi Panel
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Sunni Muslim members on a committee drafting the new Iraqi constitution suspended their membership Wednesday in the wake of a colleague's assassination. A suicide bomber blew himself up outside an army recruiting center in central Baghdad, killing at least 10 people.
news.yahoo.com
rootsie on 07.20.05 @ 07:58 AM CST [
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China's Military Geared to Deterring Taiwan, Report Says
WASHINGTON, July 19 - China is modernizing its military and emphasizing preparations "to fight and win short-duration, high-intensity conflicts" over Taiwan, the Pentagon said Tuesday with the release of its annual report on Chinese military power.
With military spending that has grown by double digit rates since the mid-1990's, China "appears focused on preventing Taiwan independence or trying to compel Taiwan to negotiate a settlement on Beijing's terms," the report said.
This political and military pressure on Taiwan may run counter to American national security interests - and to American calls for a peaceful, negotiated resolution of the Taiwan question. But China has not yet built the military power to have full confidence it can achieve its political objectives regarding Taiwan.
Beijing's conventional forces also are not deemed capable of threatening American territory, as "China's ability to project conventional military power beyond its periphery remains limited," the report stated.
At the same time, it cautioned that China was both modernizing and expanding its arsenal of nuclear missiles capable of reaching the territory of the United States.
Full: nytimes.comU.S. Allies and Congress 'Positive' About India Nuclear DealNukes for India; Threats for Iran: George W. Strangelove and the Triumph of Nuclear Faith
rootsie on 07.20.05 @ 07:55 AM CST [
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Tuesday, July 19th
Who Murdered 32 Iraqi Children? (Truth Comes Out)
An independent investigation of the murder last week of 32 Iraqi children has been conducted by a local Iraqi news location (Mufakirat Al-Islam / Islamemo.cc) with results as follows:
The writing is in Arabic, so I will translate some highlights for non-Arabic speakers:
- All major Iraqi Resistance groups issued joint written communiqué that was distributed on Thursday proclaiming that this operation was not undertaken by any of the groups neither in terms of execution or planning or involvement.
- Interview with local residents of the bombing stated that US forces cordoned off the street under the pretence that a vehicle (a KIA) parked in the street was wired to explode.
- Local residents stated that the US soldiers began handing out candy and schoolbags attracting the children.
- When residents, fearing for their children, asked about the KIA car , the US soldiers said that it was a 'false alarm' and that there was no bomb (but that a couple of US soldiers remained fiddling with the car).
- Children from neighboring streets came upon hearing of the sweets and free bags (as well as a rumor that Pokemon toys were being given out).
- After a period of about 15 minutes from them entering the street, the US forces dumped the remaining toys/sweets in a pile in the middle of the street and frantically drove off hitting 4 children in the process with their vehicle.
- Seconds later, the KIA vehicle exploded killing 32 children and wounding about ten others who were gathered in the street.
- Residents also reported that, contrary to what the US military stated, there were no US casualties or injuries from this blast as the US forces had rushed out of the street just before the explosion took place.
- Information gathered from the Iraqi fire services stated that the explosion did not leave the signature traces of a TNT blast as used by the Resistance (being left over from Russian explosives used by the Iraqi army), as the TNT blast is always outward from the place of explosion and does not leave a crater as this car bomb did.
In conclusion, the evidence and interviews revealed what was obvious from the very start...That this evil crime was perpetrated by occupation forces with the objective of murdering Iraqi children and blaming the national Resistance so as to lessen its base of support (sounds like Vietnam tactics all over again - Phoenix).
May God grant peace to the dead, victory to the Resistance, and shame and retribution to the occupiers and their allies/supporters.
Full: uruknet.info
rootsie on 07.19.05 @ 07:43 AM CST [
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Monday, July 18th
Who Shorted the British Pound?
WASHINGTON -- In the 1988 Hollywood hit "Die Hard," starring Bruce Willis, a group of "terrorists" take over a Japanese banking institution in Los Angeles, hold hostages and make demands for release of "political prisoners."
But it turns out the terrorists aren't really terrorists. They are bank robbers trying to make off with the fortune in the bank's vaults.
Could it be Osama bin Laden has seen "Die Hard"?
That is a question Scotland Yard and other law enforcement agencies are actually asking themselves following the July 7 London transit system attacks that killed 54 and injured scores more as they continue to scour the planet for evidence and additional conspirators.
Why? Because it appears some profited by short selling the British pound in the 10 days leading up to the attacks.
The pound fell about 6 percent (approximately 1.82 to 1.72) against the dollar for no apparent reason – until, of course, the terror attacks sent the British markets reeling still further.
"This was an almost unprecedented weakness and far too sharp to be a coincidence," one economist with more than 35 years of experience in the investment industry, told Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by the founder of WND. "That is, after all, an annualized rate of loss of well over 100 percent."
The fall did not go unnoticed by investigators, who are wondering whether the terrorist masterminds behind the attacks decided to make some money on their action or whether other investors with inside information about possible attacks took advantage of that knowledge.
Full: worldnetdaily.com
rootsie on 07.18.05 @ 07:37 AM CST [
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Al-Qaeda is a US Intelligence Asset
These are titles of links to be found on the website linked below:Vinnell bombing leader Khaled Jehani, fought for the CIA in Afghanistan, Bosnia & Chechnya
Members of the Moroccan terror group Salafi Jihadi fought for the CIA in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Dagestan, Bosnia and Kosovo
USS Cole Bomber Jamal al-Badawi fought for the CIA in Bosnia
Zacarias Moussaoui fought for the CIA in Chechnya
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed fought for the CIA in Afghanistan
Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman fought for the CIA in Afghanistan
Head of Egyptian Islamic Jihad Ayman al Zawahiri, fought for the CIA in Bosnia
His brother Ayman al-Zawahiri fought for the CIA in Kosovo
Abdullah Azzam, "one of the ideological founders of Hamas" fought for the CIA in Afghanistan
When Osama Bin Ladin Was Tim Osman
War and Globalization - The Truth Behind September 11th
Zbigniew Brzezinski: "Your cause is right, God is on your side."
CIA reins in loose cannons, and keeps their Al Qaeda creation alive and well
CIA "Arranged" for Passports for Al Qaeda Terrorists & Brought Them to the USA to Recruit for Jihads
Will the CIA Leave Their Saudi Partners in Crime Holding the Bag?
"New Al-Qaeda" like New Coke, only harder to buy
"The Farce Goes On - The Hunt for Ayman Zawahiri, Mohammad Omar, & Osama
"Moussaoui, Khadr, & Ressam Are "Graduates" of CIA's Khalden Camp for Afghanistan & Balkans "Jihads"
Bin Laden Puppetmasters Smoked Out In Balkans
The CIA arranged for HUM guerrillas to fight in Bosnia & Kosovo
Bin-Ladin and KLA have a 'joint' cash box in the United States
The CIA & Bin Laden worked hand-in-glove in KLA operations
U.S. Protects Al-Qaeda Terrorists in Kosovo
Wolfowitz Meets "in Private" with NLA Terrorist Ali Ahmeti
America used Islamists to arm the Bosnian Muslims
Bosnia, 1 degree of separation from Al-Qaeda
Where was the "Concern" about "al-Qaida Operating in Iran" during the War in Bosnia?
Terror mastermind with taste for high life
US Has Al Qaida Backers List
U.S. had agents inside al-Qaeda
CIA Told "Malaysian secret police" to "Monitor" Al Qaeda Meeting on Plans to Hit WTC on 9-11-2001
The CIA's "Operation Cyclone" - Stirring the Hornet's Nest of Islamic Unrest"
The Muslim Brotherhood: The Globalists' Secret Weapon
U.S. Armed, Promoted Accused September 11 Terrorist Mastermind
CIA Bankrolled System of Madrassas & Training Camps to Brainwash "Jihad" Warriors
British Press Gagged on Reporting MI6's £100,000 bin Laden Payoff
Ramzi Yousef was part of a CIA recruitment drive in New York and he did have "ties" to Bin Laden
CIA Recruits Terrorist Agents At Guantanamo
Oregon group thrives despite al Qaeda ties
Sniper link to al Qaeda investigated
Who is behind the "Terrorist Network" in Northern Iraq, Baghdad or Washington?
How Al Qaeda lit the Bali fuse
Did Rambo ever stop loving Osama? Full:apfn.net
rootsie on 07.18.05 @ 07:32 AM CST [
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Weekend of slaughter propels Iraq towards all-out civil war
IRAQ is slipping into all-out civil war, a Shia leader declared yesterday, as a devastating onslaught of suicide bombers slaughtered more than 150 people, most of them Shias, around the capital at the weekend.
One bomber killed almost 100 people when he blew up a fuel tanker south of Baghdad, an attack aimed at snapping Shia patience and triggering the full-blown sectarian war that al-Qaeda has been trying to foment for almost two years.
Iraq’s security forces have been overwhelmed by the scale of the suicide bombings — 11 on Friday alone and many more over the weekend — ordered by the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
“What is truly happening, and what shall happen, is clear: a war against the Shias,” Sheikh Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a prominent Shia cleric and MP, told the Iraqi parliament.
Sheikh al-Saghir is close to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the supreme Shia spiritual leader and moderate who has so far managed to restrain powerful Shia militias from undertaking any outright attack on Sunni insurgents. His warning suggests that the Shia leadership may be losing its grip over Shias who in private often call for an armed backlash against their Sunni assailants.
The sheikh also cautioned Sunni clerics supporting the insurgency against American forces and the Shia-Kurdish Government elected in January. “I am very keen to preserve the Sunni blood that would be shed due to the irrational acts of some of their leaders, who do not see that they are leading the country into civil war,” he told the national assembly.
Full: timesonline.co.uk'Civil war' is creeping into more and more news reports. See how absurd, the US ostensibly supporting a Shi'ite government. This is all in the script.
rootsie on 07.18.05 @ 07:20 AM CST [
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Egyptian officials urge caution over arrested biochemist
Egypt's interior minister, Habib al-Adli, has criticised the British police for coming to "hasty conclusions" about an Egyptian biochemist who was living in Leeds and who returned to Cairo several days before the London attacks.
The pro-government daily, Al Jumhuriya, said the minister had told it that reports of the scientists's links to al-Qaida were groundless.
The prosecutor general, Maher Abdel Wahid, has also come out with a pointed reminder that Egypt and the UK have no extradition treaty, so that even if the chemist were charged in Britain, Cairo need not send him back.
Egyptian police arrested Magdi el-Nashar, 33, last Thursday after British officials gave his name to the Egyptian authorities a few days earlier. Investigators found explosives in a house in Alexandra Grove, Leeds, to which Dr Nashar was reported to have links.
Muhammad Muhammad, the imam of the Tawhid mosque in Cairo, told the Guardian yesterday: "Police attended prayers on Thursday. They stood beside him and at the end just linked their arms to his and walked him out to a waiting car. That's the way it's done here."
The arrest has caused shock and consternation in the lower middle-class neighbourhood of Cairo where his family lives. Residents say Dr Nashar was known as a quiet, polite scientist who did his family proud by his educational achievements.
Although he attended the mosque regularly, he was not known as a fundamentalist, and he retained close links to a Christian family in the dusty street where he grew up.
Egyptian human rights advocates have taken up the case, urging access to him by independent lawyers. Montasser El Zayat, a senior member of the Bar Association, said: "We are against the bombings; at the same time we want honesty and fairness."
Full: guardian.co.ukHow many people have been detained since the 7th, being tortured into 'confessions'?
rootsie on 07.18.05 @ 07:14 AM CST [
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Sunday, July 17th
Time to Pull Out. And Not Just From Iraq.
...Our best strategy now is a prompt withdrawal plan consisting of clearly defined political, military and economic elements. Politically, the United States should declare its intention to remove its troops and urge the Iraqi government and its neighbors to recognize the common regional interest in allowing Iraq to evolve peacefully and without external intervention. The first Iraqi election under the permanent constitution, planned for Dec. 15, is an appropriate date for beginning the pullout.
Militarily, we should establish a timetable for reducing the scope of operations that has enough flexibility so as not to provide a tactical advantage to insurgents. We should also plan on continuing measures like no-flight zones, border surveillance, training for Iraqi security forces, intelligence collection and maintenance of a regional quick-reaction force.
Economically, we should define what amount of assistance we are prepared to extend to Iraq as long as it stays on a peaceful path. It would be best if this aid was but one facet of a broader set of economic initiatives to benefit Arab states that advance our interests.
Of course, these measures cannot guarantee a secure and democratic Iraq free of external domination. But they could be first steps of a strategy to pursue America's true long-term interests in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.
nytimes.comSince 'a secure and democratic Iraq' is far far from America's true long-term interests, whether US troops stay or leave is irrelevant, except in terms of electing Jeb Bush in '08.
rootsie on 07.17.05 @ 01:11 PM CST [
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Ramping up the Fear
Iraq suicide bomber kills 98; Saddam indicted MUSAYYIB, Iraq (Reuters) - Stricken townspeople swept away the wreckage of a fuel truck bomb that killed 98 people south of Baghdad and three more suicide car bombers hit the Iraqi capital on Sunday in a devastating new campaign.
The tribunal empowered to try war crimes issued its first charges against Saddam Hussein and said it would announce within days when the ousted dictator will stand trial for his life.
The overnight attack in the highway town of Musayyib was the most lethal since the Iraqi government took power in April and the second deadliest single bombing since the war began in 2003.
It prompted denunciations of the authorities in parliament and calls for local militia to take up arms.
Some 15 suicide bombers have struck within just over 48 hours in the capital and along the main road south in what al Qaeda's Iraq wing has declared is a campaign to seize Baghdad.
In Saturday's attack a suicide bomber blew up a fuel truck near a crowded vegetable market outside a Shi'ite mosque in Musayyib, in a lawless area U.S. troops call "the triangle of death." In addition to the 98 killed, hospital sources said 75 people had been wounded, 19 of whom were in serious condition.
"After the bomb I went over there and found my son's head. I could not find his body," said Mohsen Jassim of his son, 18.
Khatami hails new era in relations with Iraq TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami hailed a "turning point" in relations with Baghdad as Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari made a historic visit to Tehran aimed at strengthening ties after decades of enmity.
Following talks with the first Iraqi head of government to visit Iran since the fall of Saddam Hussein, Khatami said on Sunday that Iran was prepared to do anything it could to help its one-time foe, with whom it fought a devastating eight year war.
"The visit of the Iraqi prime minister to Iran is a turning point in the historic relations between the two countries. It will allow us to plaster the wounds and repair the damage caused by Saddam Hussein through joint cooperation," said Khatami, quoted by the official IRNA agency.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran will do everything it can to assure the reconstruction, security and stability of Iraq," said Khatami. "The strategy of Iran is to support a free Iraq, independent and developed."
Jaafari is heading a large delegation on the visit and is expected to sign a number of deals aimed at aiding his war-torn country to meet its growing energy needs.
"We know the evil wrought by Saddam Hussein on the peoples of the region but he does not represent the Iraqi people," IRNA quoted Jaafari as saying after the talks.
"Putting security and stability in place in Iraq will benefit all the countries in the region," he added.
Although serious sources of friction have remained, the two neighbours have embarked on a major process of reconciliation whose success has worried the United States and some Arab countries.
Iraq's Shiite-led government is the first such in an Arab country for centuries and should be a natural ally for the theocratic regime in Iran, an almost entirely Shiite country.
Not to mention Syria.Why Iraq oil money hasn't fueled rebuilding WASHINGTON – First, the good news: With oil prices at record highs, Iraq is on track to bring in $20 billion or more in oil revenue this year.
That may sound like a lot of petrodollars, especially for a war-torn country with tremendous needs in infrastructure repair and services delivery.
But the bad news is that very little, if any, of that money will actually be used in the country's stalled reconstruction - despite past lofty predictions that oil-rich Iraq would be financially self-sufficient by now.
Dealing with Iraq's insurgency is a chief reason for the gap between oil revenues and improving living conditions. But another reason for the lag is a growing problem of income loss from smuggling and outright theft of the revenues.
One worrisome consequence of the inability to turn higher oil revenues into street-level improvements is the impact on the Iraqi public's faith in the country's new government and direction.
"The insurgents know that oil is the lifeblood of the Iraqi economy, and that keeping it from improving daily life is key to building up the frustration and sense of helplessness and lack of faith in the new government - all of which they are out to encourage," says Gal Luft, codirector of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security in Washington. "Unfortunately, I don't see the government taking advantage of what should be a good time for an oil-producing country to make some money and move forward."
As the country with the world's second-largest known oil reserves, Iraq should be sitting pretty at a time of $60-a-barrel oil, analysts say. But they quickly add that Iraq's potential has been tamped down by a continuing failure to invest in renewing the country's decrepit oil infrastructure and an ill-conceived strategy of placing exports above oil-field modernization.
Any 'ill-conceived strategy' issues straight from Washington. The issue is outlined in the previous article on Iran. It is not in US interests for there to be any semblance of 'building' in Iraq. Whatever else this "Al Quaeda in Iraq' might be, it dovetails exquisitely with American and European aims. As does Hamas in Palestine. As do the 'religious schools' in Pakistan. As does all this endless ocean of human blood.
rootsie on 07.17.05 @ 01:01 PM CST [
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Blair: we cannot change course
Tony Blair warned yesterday it would be 'catastrophic' to believe al-Qaeda could be foiled by changing British foreign policy, in a robust defence to charges that the bombing was provoked by the Iraq war.
The Prime Minister hit back at suggestions that the London atrocities were linked to injustices in the Middle East, saying it was the 'almost-devilish logic' of extremists to play on western guilt.
Their propaganda was clever and sophisticated, he told an audience of Labour party delegates in London: 'It plays on our tolerance and good nature;
it exploits the tendency to guilt of the developed world - as if it is our behaviour that should change, that if we only tried to work out and act on their grievances, we could lift this evil; that if we changed our behaviour, they would change theirs.'Their cause is not founded on injustice. It is founded on a belief, one whose fanaticism is such that it can't be moderated. It can't be remedied. It has to be stood up to.'
Full: guardian.co.ukYeah Tony, as if. That last statement certainly pertains to the monstrously 'evil ideology' which you yourself represent. Ask the Iraqis about your 'tolerance and good nature.'
rootsie on 07.17.05 @ 10:27 AM CST [
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Teacher 'led terror attacks'
Suicide bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, the 30-year-old teaching assistant from Leeds, has emerged as the commander of the London terror attacks, with links to suspected al-Qaeda operatives across three continents.
As Khan's family came forward yesterday to make a public statement expressing their astonishment for his part in the 'horrific and evil' act that killed at least 55 people, security sources confirmed he was linked to a previous foiled terrorist plot in Britain. US reports also suggest that he had links to a second plot linked to an al-Qaeda cell in Pakistan. Khan is also believed to have been in telephone contact with a suspected al-Qaeda recruiter in New York.
...Last night, the wife of Germaine Lindsay spoke of her devastation at learning of her husband's secret life. Samantha Lewthwaite, 22, said: 'I never predicted or imagined that he was involved in such horrific activities. He was a loving husband and father.
'My whole world has fallen apart, and my thoughts are with the families of the victims of this incomprehensible devastation.'
Lindsay's half-sister said he had been a 'great brother, just like any sister would want a brother to be'. But Dana Reid told Channel 4 News that he had changed when he started to attend local mosques.
The pair drifted apart and Reid only heard about his death on the news. But she added, that despite his change, she could not believe he would have carried out the atrocities. 'I want proof,' she said. 'He did change but he never changed in his love for people.'
Full: guardian.co.ukWell you could see this coming, because Khan was the oldest. And a nursey school teacher at that. What happened to the convenient 'mastermind' whom we were told slipped out of the country on the 7th?
rootsie on 07.17.05 @ 10:21 AM CST [
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Was It Suicide?
Why did they buy return train tickets to Luton? Why did they buy pay & display tickets for cars? Why were there no usual shouts of 'Allah Akhbar'? Why were bombs in bags and not on their bodies?
THE London bombers may have been duped into killing themselves so their secrets stayed hidden.
Police and MI5 are probing if the four men were told by their al-Qaeda controller they had time to escape after setting off timers. Instead, the devices exploded immediately.
A security source said: "If the bombers lived and were caught they'd probably have cracked. Would their masters have allowed that to happen? We think not."
The evidence is compelling: The terrorists bought return rail tickets, and pay and display car park tickets, before boarding _ a train at Luton for London. None of the men was heard to cry "Allah Akhbar!" - "God is great" - usually screamed by suicide bombers as they detonate their bomb.
Their devices were in large rucksacks which could be easily dumped instead of being strapped to their bodies. They carried wallets containing their driving licences, bank cards and other personal items. Suicide bombers normally strip themselves of identifying material.
mirror.co.ukThis is of course assuming that bomb residues were found anywhere near their bodies.
rootsie on 07.17.05 @ 10:14 AM CST [
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'Bombers' US Ties
July 15, 2005 — One of the bombers in last week's attacks made a direct phone call to a suspected recruiter for an extremist group in New York.
Authorities told ABC News that records show Mohammed Sidique Khan, the eldest of the bombers now believed to be the field commander of the attacks, had called a person who is associated with the Islamic Center, a mosque in Queens, N.Y. Yet, a member of that mosque claimed they had no knowledge of the phone call.
In addition to Khan, two other men linked to the London bombings also had direct ties with the United States.
"Whilst we are watching the ports and the airports trying to prevent people from coming in," said M.J. Gohel, a terrorism analyst at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, "al Qaeda and its global jihadi friends are a step ahead. They have already penetrated into the West and are recruiting Western born Muslims to join terrorism."
Lindsay Germaine, one of the four dead bombers and a Jamaican who left behind a pregnant wife, had recently traveled to see relatives in Ohio.
Furthermore, Magdy El Nashar, 33, who was captured last night at his family's home outside of Cairo and then questioned by British agents, studied at North Carolina State University. Police believe he helped the bombers build their explosive devices. Now they want to know if there are more bombs and would-be bombers.
Full: abcnews.go.comA Muslim making a phone call to a mosque in New York, going to college in North Carolina, visiting relatives in Ohio. Monsters.
rootsie on 07.17.05 @ 10:07 AM CST [
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London Bombings - Web of Deceit: Peter Power, The Terror Drill, Giuliani and The CIA
As we revealed last week, on the very morning of the Bombings, a consultancy agency with government and police connections was running an exercise for an unnamed company that revolved around the London Underground being bombed at the exact same times and locations.
On a BBC Radio 5 interview that aired on the evening of the 7th, the host interviewed Peter Power, a former Scotland Yard official, working at one time with the Anti Terrorist Branch, now Managing Director of Visor Consultants, which bills itself as a 'crisis management' advice company.
Power was quoted as saying "At half past nine this morning we were actually running an exercise for a company of over a thousand people in London based on simultaneous bombs going off precisely at the railway stations where it happened this morning, so I still have the hairs on the back of my neck standing up right now"
Beyond the unbelievable "coincidence" of this scenario, the very fact that the bombs in the drill were simultaneous is a smoking gun because almost a week went by before it was revealed that the bombs had gone off simultaneously.
The importance of this drill cannot be understated. This is precisely what happened on the morning of 9/11/2001. The CIA was conducting drills of flying hijacked planes into the WTC and Pentagon at 8:30 in the morning. The two scenarios are comparable in that it is a tried and tested method of navigating around the everyday security services, and, more importantly, if the perpetrators get caught during the attack or after with any incriminating evidence they can just claim that they were just taking part in an exercise.
Peter Power has since toned down his claims in further interviews, changing his story of the drill to make it seem less identical to the real attacks. He has also issued a statement via e-mail in response to the thousands of requests he is receiving demanding clarity on the issue, that reemphasizes his backing away from his original "precisely" comment.
It seems that Power may feel he is in too deep and is backing away from the whole incident. This is probably due to the fact that Power himself and his company are not directly involved in the bombings, they have simply been used as a tool in a larger operation.
Power has been hired by the government before and he is always used to release information after terrorist incidents in London.
Two previous examples of this are the March 2001 BBC television center bombing and the September 2000 rocket attack on the MI6 building.
Was Power again used by the government as a conduit for information that would support their official version of events?
Power's comments (below) seem to suggest that his company was somehow involved in the response to the ACTUAL attacks, so if they were not working on behalf of London Underground or the Government then how were they allowed to be actively involved at multiple crime scenes?
In short, our exercise (which involved just a few people as crisis managers actually responding to a simulated series of activities involving, on paper, 1000 staff) quickly became the real thing and the players that morning responded very well indeed to the sudden reality of events.
Power is named among the elite of the Business Continuity (BC) community, he has regularly appeared on the BBC, covering terror incidents, as the "expert" when it comes to managing the crisis. He is also referred to extensively in a working paper on BC issued by the Bank of England, HM Treasury and FSA and has written for the British Bankers Association. His former clients make for interesting reading, they being JP Morgan Chase, ING, Mellon, Lloyds TSB, Morley Fund Management, Bank of New York, Arcadia Group, FCO and Universal Music.
Power has also spent time on the Advisory Board to the Canadian Centre for Emergency Preparedness(CCEP). This is significant due to the fact that a key member of that board was Richard Sheirer, Senior Vice President of Giuliani & Partners. Here they are listed together.
Sheirer was intimately involved along with Guiliani in the "crisis management" on 9/11. Giuliani himself was in London on 7th July after traveling down from Yorkshire from a speaking engagement at the Local Government Association conference in Harrogate, where he received a standing ovation for praising Tony Blair and hyping the war on terror.
Giuliani was also coincidentally only "yards from Liverpool Street station when the bombs went off." and later that day went on several TV networks saying that the crisis management teams (Peter Power's team, or so he would have us believe) seemed like they were expecting the bombing to take place.
Giuliani has met several times with government and police officials in London since 9/11.
CIA connectionsThe web of deceit extends further and the connections deepen when you take a look at the background of the Commissioner of Transport for London, Bob Kiley. Kiley also has connections with Giuliani.
During his time as President and CEO of the New York City Partnership, the city's leading business and civic organization, Kiley came into contact with Giuliani regularly, and was even backed by Giuliani as a candidate for city schools chancellor. Kiley was also a member of Giuliani's "Mayoral Task Force on Tax Reduction and Restructuring" in 1999. The two are also connected through New York City’s deputy mayor for economic development and rebuilding (after 9/11), Daniel Doctoroff, whom Kiley introduced to Giuliani.
Kiley was also an advisory to the Mayor's office on traffic management in New York, suggesting "eliminating toll booths and just putting transponders on every car's license plate. That way, motorists would automatically be charged ever time they rode on a heavily traveled bridge or tunnel -- or even a highway or major street -- during a time of peak usage."
Early in his career Kiley was tapped by the CIA and quickly became Manager of Intelligence Operations and then Executive Assistant to the Director. Kiley served under Richard Helms, who was appointed CIA director after JFK was taken out. Helms was the only director to have been convicted of lying to Congress over CIA undercover activities and served time in prison. He was heavily involved in the cover up of the MK ULTRA project. As his Executive Assistant, this means Kiley was also intimately involved.
Kiley is also incidentally a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. We should be asking ourselves why is this CIA activist and high member of the Establishment, in charge of London's Transport network?
The Establishment have their mits all over this latest staged attrocity, you can carry on probing deeper into the rabbit hole and you always come across the same elite figures and organizations, hiding in every darkened nook and cranny.
It's a certainty that as the weeks and months go by more and more questionable connections will emerge.
Full: prisonplanet.com
rootsie on 07.17.05 @ 10:00 AM CST [
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Saturday, July 16th
Biochemist has 'no al-Qaeda link'
An Egyptian biochemist held for questioning over the London bomb attacks has no links to al-Qaeda, Egypt's interior minister has said.
Habib al-Adli told Egyptian newspaper Al-Jumhuriyah media speculation about Magdi Mahmoud al-Nashar was groundless.
He also denied agents of the British security services had participated in Mr al-Nashar's interrogation in Cairo.
Unofficial sources in Cairo and London say British agents are observing the 33-year-old's ongoing interrogation.
The Egyptians are doing everything possible to cooperate, the sources say.
Mr al-Adli told Al-Jumhuriyah that reports elsewhere in the British and Arab media linking Mr al-Nashar to al-Qaeda were "groundless" and based on a hasty conclusion.
Full: bbc.co.ukBombers' ideology 'evil' says PM Prime Minister Tony Blair has hit out at the "evil ideology" behind the London bomb attacks which killed at least 55.
The PM said it was vital to confront the bombers' beliefs as well as introducing anti-terrorist measures.
"This is the battle that must be won. A battle not just about terrorist methods, but their views, [not just their barbaric acts but their barbaric ideas,]" he said.
I am sure everyone is pleased that Blair has appointed himself an authority on Islam.Reports London bombs made from military explosives Tuesday, 12 July , 2005 18:21:00
MARK COLVIN: More pointers are emerging to the nature of the organisation which bombed three London trains and a bus last week, and killed more than 50 people in the process.
Both the London Times and France's Le Monde are reporting that the bombers appear to have used sophisticated military explosives.
Both quote a top French counter-terrorism official, and the Times says a single bomb-maker was probably responsible for building all four devices.
see yesterday belowBlair Finally Admits: Al-Qaeda Doesn't Exist...Commenting on the possible role of Al Qaeda, Blair said, "Al Qaeda is not an organization. Al Qaeda is a way of working ... but this has the hallmark of that approach."
London Stagecoach Employee Says Bus Bombing Suspicious We received an e mail from an employee of Stagecoach, the company responsible for the majority of London buses.
Our contact works a route roughly one mile from the site of the bus bombing last Thursday.
The bus driver pointed out that the number 30 bus was the only one to be re-routed after the initial bombs went off in the London Underground, every other bus carried on its normal journey, but for some reason this bus was diverted.
The driver notes the following about CCTV maintainence.
"CCTV gets maintained at least 2 or 3 times a week and can digitally store upto 2 whole weeks worth of footage. this is done by a private contractor....So when I heard that the CCTV wasn't working on a vehicle that's no more than 2 years old since last June.....I'm sorry that's rubbish, I work for the company I know different."
Also a point of interest....last saturday a contractor came to inspect the CCTV on the buses at the depot, According to my supervisor the person spent more than 20 hours over that weekend, 20 hours to see if the CCTV is working? Also that person who came was not a regular contractor, for security reasons the same few people always come to the depot to carry out work, this time it was different.
Drivers in the depot already think the so called bombers had inside help because it was to organised. Some even think it had help from the company."
I have received other information suggesting that the CCTV is regularly maintained and checked. The police pay the bus company to check it, and the bus company makes a substantial profit out of this, so all parties benefit from keeping the CCTV systems working.
This information makes it all the more suspicious that the bus cameras were not working.
Was the mammoth 20 hour inspection session of the CCTV a means of disabling the CCTV, or something even darker? Were the contractors, who were not familiar to the bus company employees, actually placing the bomb?
rootsie on 07.16.05 @ 09:13 AM CST [
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Top Chinese general warns US over attack
China is prepared to use nuclear weapons against the US if it is attacked by Washington during a confrontation over Taiwan, a Chinese general said on Thursday.
“If the Americans draw their missiles and position-guided ammunition on to the target zone on China's territory, I think we will have to respond with nuclear weapons,” said General Zhu Chenghu.
Gen Zhu was speaking at a function for foreign journalists organised, in part, by the Chinese government. He added that China's definition of its territory included warships and aircraft.
“If the Americans are determined to interfere [then] we will be determined to respond,” said Gen Zhu, who is also a professor at China's National Defence University.
“We . . . will prepare ourselves for the destruction of all of the cities east of Xian. Of course the Americans will have to be prepared that hundreds . . . of cities will be destroyed by the Chinese.”
Full:financial times
rootsie on 07.16.05 @ 08:52 AM CST [
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Friday, July 15th
Aristide in Exile
by Naomi Klein
When United Nations troops kill residents of the Haitian slum Cité Soleil, friends and family often place photographs of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on their bodies. The photographs silently insist that there is a method to the madness raging in Port-au-Prince. Poor Haitians are being slaughtered not for being "violent," as we so often hear, but for being militant; for daring to demand the return of their elected president.
It was only ten years ago that President Clinton celebrated Aristide's return to power as "the triumph of freedom over fear." So what changed? Corruption? Violence? Fraud? Aristide is certainly no saint. But even if the worst of the allegations are true, they pale next to the rap sheets of the convicted killers, drug smugglers and arms traders who ousted Aristide and continue to enjoy free rein, with full support from the Bush Administration and the UN. Turning Haiti over to this underworld gang out of concern for Aristide's lack of "good governance" is like escaping an annoying date by accepting a lift home from Charles Manson.
A few weeks ago I visited Aristide in Pretoria, South Africa, where he lives in forced exile. I asked him what was really behind his dramatic falling-out with Washington. He offered an explanation rarely heard in discussions of Haitian politics--actually, he offered three: "privatization, privatization and privatization." The dispute dates back to a series of meetings in early 1994, a pivotal moment in Haiti's history that Aristide has rarely discussed. Haitians were living under the barbaric rule of Raoul Cédras, who overthrew Aristide in a 1991 US-backed coup. Aristide was in Washington and despite popular calls for his return, there was no way he could face down the junta without military back-up. Increasingly embarrassed by Cédras's abuses, the Clinton Administration offered Aristide a deal: US troops would take him back to Haiti--but only after he agreed to a sweeping economic program with the stated goal to "substantially transform the nature of the Haitian state."
Aristide agreed to pay the debts accumulated under the kleptocratic Duvalier dictatorships, slash the civil service, open up Haiti to "free trade" and cut import tariffs on rice and corn in half. It was a lousy deal but, Aristide says, he had little choice. "I was out of my country and my country was the poorest in the Western hemisphere, so what kind of power did I have at that time?"
But Washington's negotiators made one demand that Aristide could not accept: the immediate sell-off of Haiti's state-owned enterprises, including phones and electricity. Aristide argued that unregulated privatization would transform state monopolies into private oligarchies, increasing the riches of Haiti's elite and stripping the poor of their national wealth. He says the proposal simply didn't add up: "Being honest means saying two plus two equals four. They wanted us to sing two plus two equals five."
commondreams/the nation
rootsie on 07.15.05 @ 11:23 PM CST [
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Unborn babies soaked in chemicals, study finds
WASHINGTON - Unborn U.S. babies are soaking in a stew of chemicals, including mercury, gasoline byproducts and pesticides, according to a report released Thursday.
Although the effects on the babies are not clear, the survey prompted several members of Congress to press for legislation that would strengthen controls on chemicals in the environment.
The report by the Environmental Working Group is based on tests of 10 samples of umbilical-cord blood taken by the American Red Cross. They found an average of 287 contaminants in the blood, including mercury, fire retardants, pesticides and the Teflon chemical PFOA.
Full: msn.comCourt Nixes Regulating Greenhouse Gases
rootsie on 07.15.05 @ 11:20 PM CST [
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2007 will mark 200 years on from the abolition of slavery
n 2007 the Bicentenary of the British parliamentary abolition of the Transatlantic Slave trade will take place.
Whilst the Bicentenary will be marked by some sort of commemoration, there have been repeated calls for the British government to make reparations for their role in the dehumanization, exploitation and deaths of millions of Africans.
Given that plantation owners in the Caribbean were compensated to the tune of £20 million when slavery was abolished in 1807, it is not an unreasonable request that the descendants of those who suffered at the hands of slavery should also receive compensation.
Full"blackbritain.com
rootsie on 07.15.05 @ 11:17 PM CST [
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8 Months After U.S.-Led Siege, Insurgents Rise Again in Falluja
FALLUJA, Iraq, July 12 - Transformed into a police state after last winter's siege, this should be the safest city in all of Iraq.
Thousands of American and Iraqi troops live in crumbling buildings here and patrol streets laced with concertina wire. Any Iraqi entering the city must show a badge and undergo a search at one of six checkpoints. There is a 10 p.m. curfew.
But the insurgency is rising from the rubble nevertheless, eight months after the American military killed as many as 1,500 Iraqis in a costly invasion that fanned anti-American passions across Iraq and the Arab world.
Somewhere in the bowels of Falluja, the former guerrilla stronghold 35 miles west of Baghdad, where four American contractors were killed in an ambush, and the bodies of two were hanged from a bridge, in March 2004, insurgents are building suicide car bombs again.
Full: nytimes.com
rootsie on 07.15.05 @ 11:12 PM CST [
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Corruption Threatens to Leave Iraq With a 'Ghost Army'
BAGHDAD - A tidal wave of corruption may ensure the Iraqi army and police will be too few and too poorly armed to replace American and British forces fighting anti-government insurgents. That could frustrate plans in Washington and London to reduce their forces in Iraq.
The Iraqi armed forces are full of "ghost battalions" in which officers pocket the pay of soldiers who never existed or have gone home. "I know of at least one unit which was meant to be 2,200 but the real figure was only 300 men," said a veteran Iraqi politician and member of parliament, Mahmoud Othman. "The US talks about 150,000 Iraqis in the security forces but I doubt if there are more than 40,000."
Full: commondreams/independent uk
rootsie on 07.15.05 @ 11:09 PM CST [
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Karl Rove: Real Issue is the Case for War
Did White House political adviser Karl Rove deliberately reveal the identity of an undercover CIA operative? Only two people can answer that question, and neither one is talking: Rove himself and special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating the question.
Sooner or later, we probably will get an answer. Fitzgerald has been so aggressive in this investigation -- to the point of jailing a New York Times reporter who refused to reveal her confidential sources -- that indictments are reasonably likely.
In the meantime, it's important to look beyond the immediate political spectacle in Washington -- White House spokesman Scott McClellan finally confronted by reporters who feel abused and lied to -- to the reason Rove was talking to a reporter about ex-diplomat Joseph Wilson at all.
The real issue, more serious and less glitzy than whether Bush will stand by his political adviser, is the extraordinary efforts the Bush administration made to protect a case for war in Iraq from all contradictory evidence -- in effect, as the British spymaster Sir Richard Dearlove put it, to "fix" the facts and intelligence so they would support a decision already made.
Full: commondreams/star tribune
rootsie on 07.15.05 @ 11:06 PM CST [
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Lack of Vision in Presenting Spiritual Side of Liberalism
...To truly help America heal from its present spiritual disease, liberals are going to have to dig down deeper into their souls to find the place from which the real thing comes.
commondreams.orgWhat a load of crap. The 'liberal tradition' was born at the height of imperialism in Europe, and bought into it unquestioningly like everybody else. Liberalism has nothing to say to the world that's worth hearing
rootsie on 07.15.05 @ 11:03 PM CST [
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Unreal City
Suspect in London attack arrested in CairoCAIRO, Egypt - A well-liked Egyptian with an American college degree and no apparent interest in politics has been arrested as part of the investigation into the London bomb blasts. In Pakistan Friday, security forces investigating connections with the suicide bombings detained four suspects, a police office said.
...Meanwhile, the BBC, citing sources close to the investigation, said the explosive used was the highly unstable TATP (triacetone triperoxide), made from freely available ingredients.
...It said the explosives, found in raids in the city of Leeds, are thought to be similar to materials used by British “shoe bomber” Richard Reid who tried to blow up a transatlantic flight in 2001 with explosives concealed in his shoes.
what happened to the 'military grade' explosives?Chemistry student held in Cairo ..."Elnashar denied having any relation with the latest events in London. He pointed out [to questioners] that all his belongings remained in his apartment in Britain," a statement said."It is difficult to believe such things,"
...Dr Nazer said. "When I asked his colleagues, they didn't mention anything bad thing about him, saying only that he was clever and calm. His colleagues said he had no behaviour of violence or no ideological issues."
Family mourns bomb victim Shahara The first of the funerals for the victims of the London bomb attacks was today held for Shahara Islam.
In a statement, Ms Islam's parents said the 20-year-old had been in "the wrong place at the wrong time" when she was killed on her way to work at an Islington bank branch last Thursday morning.
"Today our dear daughter, cause of our joy and light of our eyes, our Shahara is returning to her Lord - an innocent and blood-stained martyr. She was an East Ender, a Londoner and British, but, above all, a true Muslim and proud to be so," the statement said.
(Just in case anybody thinks they just chose random Muslims among the dead to blame) It turns out miraculaously that the 2nd funeral is for a woman named Susan Levy! I'm surprised her last name was not reported as 'Israel' lest the symbolism escape anyone..
Police say fourth bomber born in Jamaica ...Counter-terrorist officials said last night that the investigation was starting to enter the covert "intelligence phase" which, by definition, would be much less visible than the events of recent days. The overt "operational phase" was running down, they said, adding that it was unlikely there would be any arrests in the near future.
...A senior anti-terrorist official also denied claims that the explosives originated from the Balkans, and said it was far from clear that they were of military grade - claims made by French anti-terrorist officials earlier this week.
Well a couple days ago some 'official' said it was very clear they were military grade explosives. A little Malvo (DC 'sniper') action thrown in for good measure.Loving father, bad neighbour, Piccadilly line bomber Everyone knows bad neighbors make good 'terrorists', like MOVE in Philly 1986.'Father figure' inspired young bombers...""The Lodge Lane centre was used for youth work," said Reverend Neil Bishop. "I have never had any concerns about the work Hamara do. That centre has been doing youth work for seven or eight years. The people I knew there are all perfectly regular people."
Far right and football gangs plot 'revenge'ah yes and we must not forget the picture of 'the bomber' with the 'bomb', we are assured, tucked into his rucksack:Police appeal for clues on London bus bomber
rootsie on 07.15.05 @ 10:57 PM CST [
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Thursday, July 14th
The Making of a Cover Story
Hunt for terror cell widens with fresh raidAnti-terrorist police were on Thursday carrying out a forensic search at a semi-detached house in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, in the strongest signal yet that investigators believe the bombers may have had connections with the area just north of London. Aylesbury is 22 miles from Luton where a car, said to have been used by the suicide bombers, was found.
...Evidence that at least two of the men had travelled to Pakistan raised the possibility that they originally received instructions and may have been trained by al-Qaeda there.
...The uncle of one of the bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, blamed "forces behind" his nephew for the attacks. Bashir Ahmed said his nephew, who came from Leeds, was "proud to be British". He said it was hard for the family to accept their son had caused such loss of life. "It wasn't him. It must have been forces behind him."
The other bombers were named as Hasib Mir Hussain, 18, also from Leeds, and Mohammed Sadique Kahn, 30, a father-of-one who lived in nearby Dewsbury. The fourth man has not been named, but is believed to match the profile of the other three. Security camera footage and other intelligence suggest the four knew each other well.
...As police hunted for a "fifth man" and possible mastermind behind western Europe's first suicide bomb attacks, the prime minister also took fresh steps to increase dialogue with the British Muslim community and called for an international effort to mobilise the "moderate and true voice of Islam".
...Building on the strong cross-party consensus since the attacks, Mr Blair said the government would shortly meet with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to get prompt backing for legislation aimed at preventing another terrorist strike.
Mr Blair has already said he wants to enact legislation to allow the prosecution of people caught preparing an act of terrorism. The prime minister on Wednesday said legislation would also be aimed at allowing prosecution of those involved in "incitement and instigation" of such acts.
Full: ft.comTHE TEACHER BOMBER One of the bombers who brought carnage to London taught disabled children, it has emerged.
Mohammed Sadique Khan, 30, of Dewsbury, was a supply teaching assistant who taught disabled children in Beeston, it has been revealed.
A picture of him carried on the front page of The Times shows the bearded bomber caring for young children at the school.
The news came as police told Sky News they were hunting a fifth man involved in the plot to kill 52 people in Britain's first suicide strikes.
Sky News' crime correspondent Martin Brunt said: "Police have to assume that there were others working with these four."
Full: www.sky.comHasib Hussain: The boy who grew up to bomb the No 30 bus...He was the tallest boy in his class. Hasib Hussain, aged 10, in his final year at Ingram Road Primary School in Holbeck, Leeds, was already showing signs of being a promising athlete and had ambitions to be a professional cricketer. But he was always an unassuming child.
A few years later, however, Hussain was to become one of Britain's first home-grown suicide bombers at the age of 18. One week ago yesterday, he told his mother he was going to London with friends for the night. Once there, he boarded a No 30 bus and detonated the last of the four bombs that shook the capital.
..."He was really into cricket and football. We would get together every weekend, then they closed the pitch down. I never saw him much after that until six to eight weeks ago," said a friend.
It seems he thought he had found Islam. He grew a beard and began dressing in traditional Muslim clothes. When he was last spotted by the friend he had shaved off his beard. Al-Qa'ida analysts have claimed that may be a sign of a radicalised Muslim's intention to become a terrorist.
Full: independent.co.ukOn the BBC this morning I heard one of Hussein's friends who had played cricket with him the day before he died. Maybe that's how a suicide bomber prepares for heaven. The dead can't defend themselves.
Pakistanis going to Pakistan...hmm...now that's suspicious. A few days ago they said the bombs had timers which were synchronized, and now they've found a bunch of sorry fall guys, a most unlikely lot, but certain to ramp up the anxiety level in England to a nearly intolerable degree, prompting people to accept the end of civil government. Blaming kids and positing a shady 'mastermind' conveniently disappeared to parts unknown. It's a load, and the tragic thing is that people will believe it, because the alternative is unthinkable for most. 9-11 has taught those who suspect the unthinkable. Thousands of them.
rootsie on 07.14.05 @ 07:50 AM CST [
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Tuesday, July 12th
London Underground Bombing 'Exercises' Took Place at Same Time as Real Attack
A consultancy agency with government and police connections was running an exercise for an unnamed company that revolved around the London Underground being bombed at the exact same times and locations as happened in real life on the morning of July 7th.
On a BBC Radio 5 interview that aired on the evening of the 7th, the host interviewed Peter Power, Managing Director of Visor Consultants, which bills itself as a 'crisis management' advice company, better known to you and I as a PR firm.
Peter Power was a former Scotland Yard official, working at one time with the Anti Terrorist Branch.
Power told the host that at the exact same time that the London bombings were taking place, his company was running a 1,000 person strong exercise which drilled the London Underground being bombed at the exact same locations, at the exact same times, as happened in real life.
...The exercise fulfils several different goals. It acts as a cover for the small compartamentalized government terrorists to carry out their operation without the larger security services becoming aware of what they're doing, and, more importantly, if they get caught during the attack or after with any incriminating evidence they can just claim that they were just taking part in the exercise.
This is precisely what happened on the morning of 9/11/2001. The CIA was conducting drills of flying hijacked planes into the WTC and Pentagon at 8:30 in the morning.
It is clear that at least five if not six training exercises were in operation in the days leading up to and on the morning of 9/11. This meant that NORAD radar screens showed as many as 22 hijacked airliners at the same time. NORAD had been briefed that this was part of the exercise drill and therefore normal reactive procedure was forestalled and delayed.
The large numbers of 'blips' on NORAD screens that displayed both real and 'drill' hijacked planes explain why confused press reports emerged hours after the attack stating that up to eight planes had been hijacked.
The Anglo-American establishment that controls the military-industrial complex of the West has been caught over a hundred times carrying out bombings and other terrorist attacks around the world to further their corporate aims and to blame their enemies.
The US government has been caught planning to carry out attacks and carrying out attacks. The British government has been caught red-handed as well. Members of Vladimir Putin's FSB were caught planting bombs in a Russian apartment building in 1999 by the Moscow police.
This is not speculation. Kermit Roosevelt admited on NPR radio that in 1953 the CIA and British intelligence carried out a wave of bombings and shootings in Iran. He then went on to brag about how they subsequently blamed the bombings on Iran's President, Mossadegh. Do you understand, these people brag about what they do 40 years later?
The London bombings have the same signature as the Madrild bombings of 3/11. Both of these bombings are almost indistinguishable from the Bolognia bombing in 1980 that killed over 80 people.
The bombing in Bolognia was part of a CIA operation code named Gladio, where the US government would pay right-wing terrorists to carry out bombings to be blamed on leftists in Europe. All of this was blown wide open when two of the Bolognia bombers were convited in an Italian court, forcing them to spill their guts admitting that they were neo-fascists contracted by the CIA. Operation Gladio documents have since been declassified.
The London terror alert level was lowered before the bombings took place. This gave the purpotrators extra cover to plan and execute the attack without having to evade the most stringent security.
In any crime you look at history and motive, The British government has been caught in multiple examples of carrying out bombings in London which were then blamed on the IRA. They even had one of their own MI5 agents wihin the Omagh bomb squad. Click here for an archive of this evidence.
The wider agenda will become clearer when Blair firmly points the finger at the selected patsies designated to take the fall. But for the moment he's happy to grandstand as the courageous leader who immedately returned to London to take control of the chaos.
BBC polls that were showing 80 per cent plus opposed the ID card will now likely flip back in the opposite direction. Support for the European Union and increased globalization through the G8 will rise. Who stands to gain from all this? Who has the motive?
Full: prisonplanet.com
rootsie on 07.12.05 @ 07:27 AM CST [
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Dalit Feminism
by M. Swathy Margaret
In this issue of Insight on gender and caste, many articles raise the question of alliance-building among various movements, especially between the Dalit movement and the feminist movement. Dalit feminists share a definite sense of identification with many basic articulations raised by both these movements. We have gained a lot from them. While it is important and strategically wise to form coalitions and build solidarity with other marginalized groups, it should be considered only when a movement is armed with a clear understanding of its own historicity based on the experience of oppression and discrimination. It is productive to have in mind the historical dialogue between different marginalized sections of people. Otherwise, there is the danger of Dalit women, their self-definition and their peculiar positioning in the society being rendered invisible. For example, the Dalit ideologues like Katti Padma Rao, Gopal Guru and Gaddar seem to be less sensitive to the internal patriarchy of Dalit communities. They maintain that all women are Dalits. Since the upper caste women are not allowed to enter into their kitchens and are treated as impure during their menstrual periods, they are also untouchables! Here “untouchability” is the ideal framework to fight against caste oppression, claims Gopal Guru. What Guru overlooks is that untouchability is a phenomenon that evokes various notions and images of bodies--bodies that are marked by their caste, gender, class, age, sexual orientation and other identities. And different bodies are ascribed different cultural meanings. Not all bodies possess even identities. Not all Dalit bodies are one, not all female bodies are one. They interact with each other being caught in a complex web of intersecting identities. Dalit men, even those identified with the movement, do not want to see us as intellectuals. “You are a Dalit body, a Dalit female body. Why can’t I possess it. Why can’t I just come near you”. It is threatening. This happens at a very physical level. To prevent this, one of the strategies that I use, is to stay with upper-caste women as Dalit men will not dare do express and behave in the same manner with them. In such a situation who am I closer to? The Dalit men, or the upper-caste women? Neither.
Full: countercurrents.org
rootsie on 07.12.05 @ 07:24 AM CST [
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Ministers are using aid for Africa to cover up for the disaster of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, MP George Galloway has claimed.
He said: "For me [Blair and Brown] are not the Lennon and McCartney of world development issues.
"They are the Status Quo and it's a mangy status quo which will do nothing to resolve the ocean of misery and poverty that exists in the world."
He said the privatisations and the IMF, World Bank, venture capitalists and the "robber barons" of globalised corporations had left poor countries strangled by free market reforms.
"We won't make poverty history until we make the G8 and their system history," he said, pointing to unfair trade rules.
Mr Galloway added: "The poor countries are poor because the rich countries became rich in part through making them and keeping them poor.
"Until a seismic shift of wealth is transferred to the people we robbed then justice will not be done."
Full: bbc.co.uk
rootsie on 07.12.05 @ 07:16 AM CST [
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Monday, July 11th
Another China Bank Is Courted by the West
SHANGHAI, July 10 - Goldman Sachs and Allianz of Germany are in talks to acquire a $1 billion stake in China's largest state-owned bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, according to a person briefed on the discussions.
The talks come at a time when some of the world's biggest financial institutions are rushing into China to acquire stakes in some of the country's large but troubled state-owned banks ahead of planned initial public offerings in the next few years. The Bank of America said last month that it would pay $3 billion for a 9 percent stake in the nation's third-largest lender, the China Construction Bank, which is expected to offer shares to the public late this year.
And UBS said last month that it was considering investing as much as $500 million in the Bank of China, another huge state-owned bank.
"All the big financial institutions want a piece of the action," said Jack J. T. Huang, who oversees China coverage for the law firm Jones Day in Taipei, Taiwan. "This is not necessarily a rational decision when you look at the numbers. But these institutions believe the government won't allow these banks to fail. They will step in to help them succeed."
I.C.B.C. has nearly 400,000 employees, more than 100 million customers and about $500 billion in assets. It is unclear how large a stake in the bank Goldman and Allianz may get. The negotiations were reported by the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong on Saturday.
Goldman and other large investment banks may be positioning themselves to help take the banks public in the next few years in deals that could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in investment banking fees.
Citigroup was initially expected to help take China Construction Bank public, but bankers said that deal is now likely to be handled by Morgan Stanley and its Chinese joint venture partner, the China International Capital Corporation, after Citigroup passed on buying a stake.
Full: nytimes.com
rootsie on 07.11.05 @ 01:13 PM CST [
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Chinese labor for oil drilling eyed in Colo.
Canadian oil giant EnCana is considering bringing in Chinese companies to construct and operate drilling rigs in the Colorado Rockies, as the region struggles to keep up with demand and rising energy prices.
EnCana, a major player in the Piceance Basin of western Colorado, said Chinese labor is cheap and the workers are well-educated. The move would be scrutinized in Washington, where politicians are uneasy about allowing Chinese workers to acquire access to U.S.-based oil and gas facilities.
"I am totally against the Chinese government running the jobs in our country," said Rep. John Salazar, Colorado Democrat, whose district is most affected by drilling. "With the Chinese government getting involved, it's not even a competitive business model."
Mr. Salazar and other U.S. lawmakers already are concerned about the China National Offshore Oil Corp.'s interest in buying the U.S. oil and gas conglomerate Unocal Corp.
The House voted June 30 to block China's cash bid of $18.5 billion. The 398-15 vote came hours after China cited U.S. "political interference" in what it called a purely commercial matter.
"Outsourcing has already claimed millions of jobs," Mr. Salazar said. "We cannot allow that to happen within our own borders. Rural communities have been hit hard enough. We need to keep American jobs in America."
EnCana is deciding whether to construct the drilling rigs in China and import them with Chinese workers to the United States.
Full: washtimes.com
rootsie on 07.11.05 @ 01:10 PM CST [
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Downing Street rejects Howard call for inquiry
Downing Street has rejected a call by Michael Howard yesterday for a full inquiry into possible security failures before the London bombings.
In a television interview, the Conservative leader said: "Let's look again at our arrangements, let's have an inquiry into what happened and whether anything more could have been done."
Tony Blair will today make his first statement to parliament since the attacks, focusing on the hunt for the terrorists, the continuing search for bodies and the arrangements being led by the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, to provide advice and help for bereaved families.
In a separate development, the Guardian has learned that MI5 is to conduct an internal investigation into the bombings to try to establish how the terrorists avoided detection.
Security and intelligence officials said yesterday they had "absolutely nothing to hide" and described MI5, the domestic security service, as a "self-critical organisation".
They added: "[MI5] wants to find out how this got through".
Full: guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 07.11.05 @ 01:05 PM CST [
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Blair tells MPs 'we will not rest' until bombers are caught
Tony Blair, the prime minister, today told parliament there was "no intelligence specific enough" to have prevented the London bombings, but promised the government would not rest until the perpetrators were brought to justice.
The capital returned to work today amid unconfirmed reports that the possibility of further attacks has put Britain on its highest ever state of terrorist alert. Mr Blair said an investigation - "among the most vigorous and intensive this country has seen" - was under way to find those responsible.
Speaking outside King's Cross station, where one of the bombs exploded, Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police chief, said the attack was one of the biggest crimes in English history and said the investigation would take time.
The prime minister said it was "probable that the attack was carried out by Islamist extremist terrorists" but insisted anger should not be directed at Muslim communities in Britain. He told British Muslims: "We were proud of your contribution before Thursday, we are proud of it today.
"We are united in our determination that our country will not be defeated by such terror, but will defeat it and emerge from this horror with our values, our way of life, our tolerance and respect for others undiminished."
The death toll today rose to 52 but could increase further as it was revealed police liasion officers are now working with 74 families. The first two victims of the bomb attack were today named: Susan Levy of Cuffley, Hetfordshire, and Gladys Wundowa of Chadwell Heath, Essex.
Mr Blair said intelligence services and police had worked hard over the last few years to guard Britain against such an attack.
"By their very nature, people callous enough to kill completely innocent civilians in this way are hard to stop," the prime minister, who has resisted Tory calls for an inquiry, told MPs.
"But our services and police do a heroic job for our country day in day out and I can say that over the past years, as this particular type of new and awful terrorist threat has grown, they have done their utmost to keep this country and its people safe."
The US president, George Bush, speaking at the same time in West Virginia, vowed to "take the fight" to the terrorists behind the London bomb attacks.
"These kind of people who blow up subways and buses are not people you can negotiate with or reason with or appease. In the face of such adversaries there is only one course of action.
"We will continue to take this fight to the enemy and we will fight until this enemy is defeated."
Intelligence officials have privately conceded that they received little information in the crucial 48 hours following the bombings.
A meeting on Saturday between top British, US and European intelligence chiefs admitted that there had been few breaks, few leads and no suspects, today's New York Times reported.
Christophe Chaboud, a French anti-terrorist official present at the meeting, told today's Le Monde the apparent use of military explosives was "very worrying".
"We're more used to cells making homemade explosives with chemicals. How did they get them? Either by trafficking, for example, in the Balkans, or they had someone on the inside who enabled them to get them out of a military establishment," he said.
Full: guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 07.11.05 @ 01:03 PM CST [
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Reid plays down Iraq troop withdrawal report
The defence secretary, John Reid, today said British forces would remain in Iraq "for as long as is needed," after a leaked report detailed plans to cut the number of British troops from 8,500 to 3,000.
The document - entitled Options for Future UK Force Posture in Iraq and marked "Secret - UK eyes only", was leaked to the Mail on Sunday.
It said the US was planning to cut its troop numbers from 176,000 to 66,000 as several provinces were handed over to control by Iraqi forces.
In a statement today, Mr Reid said: "We have made it absolutely plain that we will stay in Iraq for as long as is needed.
"No decisions on the future force posture of UK forces have been taken. But we have always said that it is our intention to hand over the lead in fighting terrorists to Iraqi security forces as their capability increases. We therefore continually produce papers outlining possible options and contingencies.
Full: guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 07.11.05 @ 12:58 PM CST [
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Israeli Barrier in Jerusalem Will Cut Off 55,000 Arabs
Israel's separation barrier in Jerusalem will cut off 55,000 Palestinian residents from the rest of the city, Israeli officials acknowledged Sunday. Palestinians responded sharply, saying they will face daily complications in reaching jobs, schools and hospitals.
It was the first time the government had said how many tens of thousands of Jerusalem residents would be outside the fence.
Israel's cabinet called for the swift completion of the partly built barrier in Jerusalem, which has been hit by more Palestinian suicide bombings than any other city. The cabinet endorsed a series of measures intended to minimize disruptions, including building a dozen crossing points that would permit Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to move back and forth.
Palestinians demanded that Israel stop building the barrier and said its route divided Palestinian neighborhoods from one another.
"When the Palestinian people see the construction of the wall, the isolation of Jerusalem and the building of more Jewish settlements, how can Palestinians believe there is a promising future," said Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian foreign minister.
The Israeli announcement came a year and a day after the International Court of Justice at The Hague handed down an advisory ruling that said building the separation barrier inside the West Bank violated international law.
Full: nytimes.com
rootsie on 07.11.05 @ 12:55 PM CST [
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Obama lends star power
EATONVILLE -- About 500 people rose to their feet in a standing ovation worthy of a rock star as U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., hit the stage Saturday at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church.
The charismatic black politician from Chicago, who at 43 has achieved almost icon status since his wildly popular speech at last year's Democratic convention, was in town to bolster the upcoming Senate campaign of his colleague U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
...I see a Democratic Party afraid to say they're Democrats, who voted for the war in Iraq and voted for tax cuts for the wealthy," said Glenn Anderson of Orlando. "Why should I remain a Democrat?"
It was a tough question. But Nelson and Obama tried to answer it.
"The Democrats at times have lost their way," conceded Obama. "We are trying to decide what our core values are."
The criterion for judging the party isn't whether it's to the left or right, "but are we true to our core values," he said. Nobody defined core values.
Balance, Nelson answered, is necessary for government to work. His example: "I call 'em as I see 'em. When I disagree with the president, I vote against him. When I agree with the president, I vote with him."
Obama gave another example: "I was opposed to the war [in Iraq] when it was launched. But once we're in, we have an obligation to make it work, to honor those who lost their lives and bring a semblance of democracy to the region."
Both politicians pushed emotional buttons close to voters' hearts.
Full: orlando sentinel.comOh, 'core values'....right.... If I happen to run into them I'll be sure to let the Senator know. Like I said the Democratic Party is dead.
rootsie on 07.11.05 @ 12:49 PM CST [
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The Wages of Denial
TEN years ago this week, Serbian forces slaughtered more than 7,000 Muslim men in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica. Despite the efforts of a dedicated few in Serbia, and despite the war crimes prosecutions at The Hague, Serbia is no closer today than it was a decade ago to reckoning with its war guilt.
For years Belgrade has denied involvement by its citizens in Srebrenica and other massacres of the 1990s. The recent broadcast of a graphic video that showed Serbian paramilitary police executing six young men from Srebrenica should have made it very hard to sustain that revisionism. Amazing as it seems, however, the video was not enough to shatter what Serbian human rights activist Sonja Biserko has described as the country's "state of collective denial."
Fewer than half of Serbs polled last spring believed the Srebrenica massacre took place. And while much has been made of the video's effects on a shocked Serbian public, it remains to be seen where that public will stand once the furor recedes. The Radical Party, which won 27 percent of the popular vote in the last national elections, making it the largest party in Parliament, has already criticized what it sees as the anti-Serb hysteria that "wishes at all costs to put the burden of all crimes on Serbia." Graffiti has appeared in several cities praising the "liberation" of Srebrenica. Rumors circulate that the video was doctored, or that the men committing the crimes were acting independently.
Instead of coming to terms with its past, Serbia has circumvented the issue with the narrative skills befitting a psychopath.
Full: nytimes.comWell Serbia isn't the only one. I would say the "colonialism was good" talk floating around these days is psychopathic. Jack Straw calls Serbia "a scar on Europe," Africa " a scar on the conscience of the world." A pity these Blairs and Bushes and Chiracs are so oblivious to the scars they leave, and the new wounds they inflict every day.
rootsie on 07.11.05 @ 12:40 PM CST [
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Unnecessary Powers
The Patriot Act already gives government too much power to spy on ordinary Americans, but things could get far worse. Congress is considering adding a broad new investigative power, known as the administrative subpoena, that would allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation to gain access to anyone's financial, medical, employment and even library records without approval from a judge and even without the target knowing about it. Members of Congress should block this disturbing provision from becoming law.
The Senate is at work on a bill to reauthorize parts of the Patriot Act that are scheduled to expire later this year. In addition to extending those provisions, the Senate Intelligence Committee is proposing to add an array of new "investigative tools." The administrative subpoena is not the only one of the new provisions of the current bill that would endanger civil liberties, but it is the worst.
When the F.B.I. wants access to private records about an individual, it ordinarily needs to get the approval of a judge or a grand jury. The proposed new administrative subpoena power would allow the F.B.I. to call people in and force them to produce records on its own authority, without approval from the judicial branch. This kind of secret, compelled evidence not tied to any court is incompatible with basic American principles of justice. It would also make it far easier for the F.B.I. to go off on fishing expeditions.
The bill would allow the F.B.I. to order that the subpoenas be kept secret. That means record holders, like banks or employers, would not be able to inform the person whose private information was being handed over. It would also make it difficult for Congress, and the public, to know whether the F.B.I. was abusing its enormous new powers.
Full:nytimes.com
rootsie on 07.11.05 @ 12:27 PM CST [
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Saturday, July 9th
The Innocence that Kills
by rootsie
The Innocence that Kills
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." U.S. Declaration of Independence
“No one can condone acts of violence aimed at working people going about their daily lives. They have not been a party to, nor are they responsible for, the decisions of their government. They are entirely innocent and we condemn those who have killed or injured them.
The loss of innocent lives, whether in this country or Iraq, is precisely the result of a world that has become a less safe and peaceful place in recent years.” George Galloway, MP, June 7, 2005
The Declaration clearly states that the one and only purpose of any government is to safeguard the unalienable rights of its people, and that the only powers a government should have are the ones these people give it. This is the definition of democracy. In return, it is the people’s responsibility to keep a vigilant eye out to ensure that their government does not veer from this purpose.
What variety of ‘innocence’ is acceptable in a democracy? If its people are not ultimately responsible for the decisions of their government, then how can it be said that that government is democratic?
One of the most monstrous aspects of governments careening out of control is that they murder any possibility of innocence. If these governments are engaged in various heinous crimes across the globe, every citizen is fair game when retribution time comes. You can’t have it all ways, trumpeting the virtues of your democracy, enjoying the privileges bought off ‘the other’s’ back, and then protesting your innocence when the rubber hits the road. This is true even if it is deranged elements of your own government that have hideously attacked you.
“But we didn’t know!” That’s what the townspeople said at Auschwitz as the human ashes rained down on their heads.
On 9-11 I was sickened by that question, “Why do ‘they’ hate us?” I felt in that moment the gravity of this sin of ‘innocence.’ People in a democracy are supposed to know what their government is doing. A million Iraqi children dead and we ‘didn’t know.’ I realized in that moment that we’d lost it, lost any semblance of control over our government. The President smugly replied, “They hate us because we love freedom.” All I can say is tell it to Fallujah, where a captive population shuffles through checkpoints with optical scans. Tell it in the face of Gitmo and Abu Ghraib and all the other gulags.
Of course, it can reasonably be argued that we in the West do not live in democracies and never have, that ‘democracy’ from the first has actually been about plutocracy, ‘democracy’ merely a rhetoric-laden vehicle used by vested interests to put the lockdown on the planet and its wealth. They bestowed relative privilege on some (largely white) as a great pacifier, while they raped the rest. The thing is, they gave us the words for humane governance, and not only the words but the ideas behind them. Young people have been manipulated by those words and into thinking it’s an ok idea to sacrifice their lives in service to a beast. Talk about suicide bombers.
I saw an article today about a conference being held in Washington to train teachers to teach about the Holocaust. Where are the conferences about the Holocaust of imperialism, about the Palestinian Holocaust, about the Congo Holocaust?
The Israeli government was ‘informed’ about the impending bombings in London; the police on the ground were not. The safety of Benjamin Netanyahu was deemed more important than the lives of thousands of Londoners.
Who benefits most from these bombings? That’s a question that could lead to something productive.
50 people blown to smears and pieces anywhere is a terrible thing. But innocence does not live here. I am a mother and a grandmother, and the pain it gives me to say this is great.
“Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
…The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” from “The Second Coming”, W.B.Yeats, 1921
rootsie on 07.09.05 @ 10:11 PM CST [
link]
France: Recasting Colonialism As a Good Thing
France and other European countries are claiming, either officially or through historians, that colonialism was a positive thing.
In a law passed on Feb. 23, the French parliament, dominated by President Jacques Chirac's right-leaning Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), demanded that teachers at schools all over the country and textbooks emphasise "the positive role (played by) France overseas, especially in the Maghreb region" in North Africa.
This move sparked debate among French historians, politicians, teachers, and representatives of former colonies, especially Algeria.
At first, the Algerian government considered calling a special joint session of the two chambers of parliament to discuss the issue and formulate a response to the French claims.
But President Abdelaziz Bouteflika decided against the special session. Instead, the two chambers will review the issue separately and adopt a resolution condemning "the crimes of colonisation."
While this official reaction comes against a backdrop of Algerian efforts to normalise relations with the former colonial power and a plan to sign a special co-operation agreement with Paris, Algeria's response to France's attempt to rewrite history shows that the wounds provoked by colonialism in the Maghreb are still sore.
Full:allafrica.comAs can be seen by the responses to the London bombings, with raw power comes the presumption of the right to tell the story.
rootsie on 07.09.05 @ 11:16 AM CST [
link]
Does anyone really know what time it is?
by Jeff Wells
Some time ago a crazy dream came to me.
I dreamt I was walkin' into World War Three. - Bob Dylan
A few, brief thoughts about London.
I think, at this early stage, we should be cautious about all sweeping presumptions. We know false flag operations are not paranoid conjecture - that many have been conducted by governments against their own populations is no less true for its being hidden - but that doesn't mean every flag is false. Synthetic terror exists, in part, because there is such a thing as unsynthesied terror: violence without stage management, perpetrated by unco-opted forces unpenetrated by its enemy's Intelligence. Though naturally, that many more people today than four years ago would gladly give their lives to strike a blow against crusader nations is also by design, according to the neoconservatives' rule-by-spiralling-chaos theory.
In the confusion, early reports detailing warnings of the attacks are being scrubbed from wire services, while security agencies are going into safe mode. An original story remains posted on Arutz Sheva, which quotes Israeli Army Radio as saying "Scotland Yard had intelligence warnings of the attacks a short time before they occurred. The Israeli Embassy in London was notified in advance, resulting in Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu remaining in his hotel room rather than make his way to the hotel adjacent to the site of the first explosion, a Liverpool Street train station, where he was to address and economic summit."
Earliest reports spoke of six bombs. There only four detonations. Much later, two unexploded devices were found. A question: what was the media's original source for there being six bombs?
"The Secret Organization of al Qaeda in Europe" has claimed responsibility, yet another "previously unknown" group. Though, since it has "al Qaeda" in its name, that will mean to most people, simply, that "al Qaeda" did it, as though it were a top-down outfit of villainy such as SMERSH or KAOS or the Legion of Doom. The forbidden knowledge that al Qaeda was subcontracted by Britain's MI6 and paid £100,000 in 1996 for an assassination attempt upon Muammar Qaddafi is unlikely to be heard now over Blair's tremulous turn at "They hate us for our freedoms."
Full:rigorousintuition.com
rootsie on 07.09.05 @ 10:57 AM CST [
more..]
The London Bombings
by Robert Thompson
Like every decent person, we must condemn the persons responsible for the bombings which have taken place today in London, but we must also condemn with equal vigour those who commit similar crimes every day in the Holy Land in the name of Zionism or in Iraq and elsewhere in support of Mr George W. Bush's war against our civilisation.
The Statement put out by George Galloway, the Respect Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow, is a helpful reminder of the interrelationship of all such hideous attacks on innocent people going about their ordinary daily lives.
We cannot let pass without comment any such violation of human values, and we must express without fear our disgust at the perpetrators of all attrocities whether or not they are among the supposedly "great and good" of this world or not. London is in the same situation as Falujah or Rafah or Jenin, or, if one goes back in time the Warsaw Ghetto or Sabra and Shatila.
Let us all show our horror at the terrorism constantly used by the followers of the current Triumvirate of Evil, Mr George W. Bush, Mr Ariel Sharon and Mr Oussama bin Laden. Also, it would be unfair to forget their Scottish lap-dog, Mr Anthony (call me "Tony") Blair, currently welcoming his Fuehrer at the G8 Meeting being held in the Gleneagles Hotel.
Let us also all show our revulsion for all who use such reckless violence to achieve their aims, starting with the same Triumvirate, whose followers, when their leaders pretend to be in disagreement with one another, cleverly use this phoney hostility as a means towards the destruction of all peace and decency in this world while they endeavour to strengthen their ruinous joint grip on our lives and on our freedoms.
If only these three criminals (together, of course, with their pathetic acolyte Mr Blair) could be brought together before the International Criminal Court to face their crimes as defined so clearly in the Nuremberg Principles, then the world would be a cleaner place.
In the meantime, we must all express our sympathy for all who are suffering or have suffered from the evil attacks in London, from the evil invasion and occupation of Iraq and from the evil invasion and occupation of the Holy Land, whatever may have been the supposed justification for any such terrorist actions.
Full: axisoflogic.com
rootsie on 07.09.05 @ 10:45 AM CST [
link]
The London Bombings
by Robert Thompson
Like every decent person, we must condemn the persons responsible for the bombings which have taken place today in London, but we must also condemn with equal vigour those who commit similar crimes every day in the Holy Land in the name of Zionism or in Iraq and elsewhere in support of Mr George W. Bush's war against our civilisation.
The Statement put out by George Galloway, the Respect Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow, is a helpful reminder of the interrelationship of all such hideous attacks on innocent people going about their ordinary daily lives.
We cannot let pass without comment any such violation of human values, and we must express without fear our disgust at the perpetrators of all attrocities whether or not they are among the supposedly "great and good" of this world or not. London is in the same situation as Falujah or Rafah or Jenin, or, if one goes back in time the Warsaw Ghetto or Sabra and Shatila.
Let us all show our horror at the terrorism constantly used by the followers of the current Triumvirate of Evil, Mr George W. Bush, Mr Ariel Sharon and Mr Oussama bin Laden. Also, it would be unfair to forget their Scottish lap-dog, Mr Anthony (call me "Tony") Blair, currently welcoming his Fuehrer at the G8 Meeting being held in the Gleneagles Hotel.
Let us also all show our revulsion for all who use such reckless violence to achieve their aims, starting with the same Triumvirate, whose followers, when their leaders pretend to be in disagreement with one another, cleverly use this phoney hostility as a means towards the destruction of all peace and decency in this world while they endeavour to strengthen their ruinous joint grip on our lives and on our freedoms.
If only these three criminals (together, of course, with their pathetic acolyte Mr Blair) could be brought together before the International Criminal Court to face their crimes as defined so clearly in the Nuremberg Principles, then the world would be a cleaner place.
In the meantime, we must all express our sympathy for all who are suffering or have suffered from the evil attacks in London, from the evil invasion and occupation of Iraq and from the evil invasion and occupation of the Holy Land, whatever may have been the supposed justification for any such terrorist actions.
Full: axisoflogic.com
rootsie on 07.09.05 @ 10:44 AM CST [
link]
Statement on the London bombings by George Galloway on behalf of Respect
We extend our condolences to the families and loved ones of those who have lost their lives today and our heartfelt sympathy to all those who have been injured by the bombs in London.
No one can condone acts of violence aimed at working people going about their daily lives. They have not been a party to, nor are they responsible for, the decisions of their government. They are entirely innocent and we condemn those who have killed or injured them.
The loss of innocent lives, whether in this country or Iraq, is precisely the result of a world that has become a less safe and peaceful place in recent years.
We have worked without rest to remove the causes of such violence from our world. We argued, as did the security services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the government ignoring such warnings.
We urge the government to remove people in this country from harms way, as the Spanish government acted to remove its people from harm, by ending the occupation of Iraq and by turning its full attention to the development of a real solution to the wider conflicts in the Middle East.
Only then will the innocents here and abroad be able to enjoy a life free of the threat of needless violence.
Full: respectcoalition.orgHow can it be said that citizens in a self-proclaimed democracy are not responsible for the decisions of their government? This is the simple truth that Ward Churchill and others got crucified for. The actions of our governments in the UK and US dirty all of us, and willing or not, we are complicit. And furthermore, there is no evidence that this was an Islamist operation. The question must be, who benefits the most from this? If we could just hold that question in our minds, the horror of the answer might lead to a real confrontation with the beast that's stalking the world. The carefully constructed illusion that these people care for the lives of 'their own' any more than they care for 'the others' is what has to fall away
rootsie on 07.09.05 @ 10:39 AM CST [
link]
Friday, July 8th
Iraq Links London Attacks to Insurgency
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Islamic extremists have been using Iraq as a planning center for attacks around the world since losing Afghanistan as their base in 2001, the government's chief spokesman said Friday.
Speaking about Thursday's blasts in London that killed more than 50 people, Laith Kubba said "we don't know exactly who carried out these acts but it is clear that these networks used to be in Afghanistan and now they work in Iraq."
The spokesman said that insurgents in Iraq and those who carried out the London attacks "are from the same network. There are different groups in the world, but they all follow the same school."
Kubba was referring to hardline Muslim extremists who label people that don't agree with them as infidels.
"We don't know exactly who enters Iraq then leaves to carry out attacks with explosives around the world," he told The Associated Press.
Full:yahoo.como whatever whatever whatever. blame Iraq (and Syria)Iraq's government has accused Syria of allowing insurgents to cross its porous border into Iraq — a claim Damascus denies, saying it cannot fully control its portion of the frontier.
rootsie on 07.08.05 @ 01:47 PM CST [
link]
Thursday, July 7th
We Should Start Appreciating Ourselves As Africans - Femi Kuti
"...Africa should learn how to help itself. Speaking about help, do you see how America is actually helping Iraq? Is it good help? Killing them and sending medicine to them, is that good help? We have to help ourselves. Europe helps itself.
They even got help from Africa by enslaving Africans. If they didn't take us as slaves, they wouldn't be where they are today. History is why we are sitting here today. When we appreciate history, we begin to move forward. Africans should appreciate what their forefathers went through during the Slave Trade. Let us not abuse ourselves by saying that we sold ourselves..."
Full:allafrica.com
rootsie on 07.07.05 @ 11:43 PM CST [
link]
In search of a better Africa - Historic' debt relief: Who profits?
by Ken Kopka
MUCH CHEST-THUMPING will accompany this week's announcement by the world's wealthy (G8) nations of a new deal for African debt relief. According to British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown the $40 billion deal will mean 100% write-offs for fourteen African countries, covering their debts to the World Bank, African Development Bank, and International Monetary Fund.
More than a little Puritan guilt drove pre-summit negotiations and the expectation - soon shattered - that the agreement could mean a doubling of aid to Africa. There prevailed a sense, as British Prime Minister Tony Blair pressed United States President George Bush for additional funding, that in one gesture they might fix a sum that would relieve the white conscience of its African burden forever. The fantasy was further fostered by the non-governmental organisations (including Jubilee 2000) and pop stars pressing for the deal.
Like most acts of charity, however, the deal instead looked set to reinforce the symbolism of noble giver and pitiable recipient, and the racist suppositions on which the rich world's dealings with the world's poor have long rested. The question was who stood to profit the most by it.
Full: jamaica-gleaner.com
rootsie on 07.07.05 @ 11:38 PM CST [
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Netanyahu Changed Plans Due to Warning
Both of these are from AP articles an hour apart bearing the above title:
Version 1: 7:17amETJERUSALEM -
British police told the Israeli Embassy in London minutes before Thursday's explosions that they had received warnings of possible terror attacks in the city, a senior Israeli official said...
Full: news.yahoo.comVersion 2: 8:17amETJERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on his way to a hotel near the scene of one of the London blasts Thursday when he received a call to stay put, the foreign minister said.
''After the first explosion, our finance minister received a request not to go anywhere,'' Finance Minister Silvan Shalom told Israel Army Radio.Netanyahu was to have been the scheduled keynote speaker at an Israeli corporate investment conference at the Great Eastern hotel near the Liverpool Street subway station.
Full: nytimes.comVersion 3: 8:14pmETFull: washingtonpost.com...Police said there had been
no warning and that the blasts at three subway stations went off within 26 minutes, starting at 8:51 a.m. in an Underground train just outside the financial district. Authorities initially blamed a power surge but realized it was a terror attack after the bus bombing near the British Museum at 9:47 a.m. _ less than an hour after the first explosion.
Pretty astonishing that the Israeli government was warned, and not the police.
rootsie on 07.07.05 @ 08:36 PM CST [
link]
Monday, July 4th
Helping poor 'a lifetime's work'
Chancellor Gordon Brown says progress has been made in
tackling poverty but it will take more than one G8 meeting to
determine Africa's long-term future.He told the BBC: "
It is a lifetime's work where we empower the people of Africa and the developing countries to make decisions for themselves."...And he said the Live 8 events were an example of Britain at its best.
They were proof that
"people can have power if they make their views felt"....But he stressed: "It is not a week's work at the G8 that is going to
determine the long-term future of Africa or the developing countries."
The Pope has also joined in calls for world leaders to
take action to
stamp out poverty in Africa.
He urged them to take concrete measures to
eradicate starvation and
help poorer countries to develop....EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson said that
trade was the only way to convert humanitarian assistance into economic sustainability in Africa.But he added: "It's not a simple we throw a switch, we pull a lever and we have reform overnight for the benefit of all developing countries.
"Different developing countries have different interests and different needs and
we have to accommodate them all."Full: bbc.co.uk'Determining Africa's long-term future"...feels so nice they had to say it twice. Check those muscular verbs baby. "We" are so so goood... Only 'we' have the power to 'empower'. And which 'people' have the power? Why 'ours' of course. "'We' [sigh] have to accomodate 'them' all...whiteman's burden is a bitch...
I'm reminded of what Eduardo Galeano said, that in 'developing countries' we do not see a lack of capitalism, but indeed capitalism in its "vicious senility." Why are "they" poor? Simple. Because "we" are rich. Mr. Brown makes sure to say this is all going to take a very long time, since the fruits will be invisible, being non-existent.
rootsie on 07.04.05 @ 08:01 AM CST [
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The music's over, the message lingers on
It was, as Chris Martin of Coldplay put it, "the greatest thing that's ever been organised probably in the history of the world", and although veterans of the two world wars might have disagreed, for once the drift-net rock statement captured the mood.
...In the end, this is what saved the concert from mawkishness: the possibility of failure put steel in the atmosphere at Live 8.
"Come Monday morning, most people here will have probably forgotten a lot of what was said," said David Smithey, 26, a manager from south London, when it was all over. "But that's not the point. It's not us, now, who've got to remember."
At midday the approach to the park was a familiar pre-rock concert landscape of men weeing under trees, jocular police and a revivalist with a megaphone: "I used to be a sinner like you, now I'm a winner."
And then you heard the conversations. "Bono gets all his merchandise made in a cooperative factory in South Africa," said a girl in Top Shop's finest, made-up for a chance appearance on telly.
"Surely the key issue is debt cancellation," said a man waving an Arsenal flag. "Bob can get things done," said another.
A girl dragging a suitcase of provisions said: "I feel bad, I just bought a load of stuff from Harrods food hall when there are, you know, people in Africa ... " Her friends reassured her that this was precisely the issue they were there to confront.
"Tony Blair can't actually do anything," came the voice of a lone cynic, to which her companion fairly screamed: "YES HE CAN, he's got a percentage."
At the entrance, fans without tickets pleaded for spares, but apologetically, lest they be mistaken for touts and beaten to death.
The fear of anti-climax made the crowd initially jittery and the organisers seemed to feel it too; the outline of Richard Curtis could be seen hovering anxiously in the wings on stage. It took a while for people to find their voice. When Bono said "eight of the most powerful men on earth are meeting in Gleneagles in Scotland", a huge cheer went up and then abruptly stopped, as people wondered if they should rather be booing. "God bless you, Africa," said Bono, more straightforwardly, and so it began.
...The weirdest sequence of the night was Jon Bon Jovi live from Philadelphia to Brian Wilson in Berlin to Snoop Dogg in London, and then a short film about starving children in Africa. The crowd could not shift registers quickly enough and ragged cheers spilt over as horrendous imagery flashed up on the giant screens. "No," chided Sir Bob, coming on stage afterwards, "I don't think we clap that, do you?", before telling off the press for being a bunch of dirty cynics.
"Fock off, Bob!" someone called out, fondly.
...There were, of course, lots of warm, fuzzy and nonsensical statements from the stage, and it fell to Ms Dynamite, never one to shirk her duty, to remind everyone that "at the end of the day, we as a nation have robbed, killed, stolen and tortured the third world", and that if there was a debt to be paid, we owed it.
Full: guardian.co.ukExcept for the 'nonsensical statement' at the end which is the only thing that made any sense to me, this sounds like that harrowing "10 Minutes Hate" scene from 1984. Hitting the reptile brain button. The reptiles, of course, are fine, it's us humans that're the problem.
rootsie on 07.04.05 @ 07:37 AM CST [
link]
First steps in world's 'moral crusade'
Gordon Brown made an impassioned call on Saturday night for the
"greatest moral crusade of our times ... to tackle the greatest evil of our time".Speaking to an invited audience of Christian Aid supporters and Scottish and African church leaders, the chancellor said the reason governments were acting on Africa and aid was because of pressure from churches and faith groups.
An estimated 250,000 people, many of them members of British charity and faith groups, joined the protest march through Edinburgh, making a symbolic ring around the city's castle. It was believed to be the largest political demonstration in Scottish history.
In what yesterday was being called Brown's Sermon on the Mound - it was delivered in the Methodist assembly hall on the Mound - he said
Africa had become the test of the world's humanity."It is because of your moral outrage against poverty ... that nations have come together. Through your campaigns from churches and faith groups, 13 countries have now declared a [timetable] for 0.7% income devoted to aid.
"Is it not a moral sense in each of us that feels the pain of others and believes in something bigger than themselves, that calls us to answer the needs of the needy, the suffering of the sick?
"We are one moral universe and ours must become the greatest moral crusade of our times. It is our duty to answer your call for action," he said to cheers.
Mr Brown quoted Christian, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist and other religious doctrines, as well as political heroes including Gandhi, Mandela, Adam Smith and Abraham Lincoln as justification for immediate action.
He pledged that Britain would write off its share of the debt payments of 70 countries, that 38 countries would have complete debt forgiveness and that European aid would be doubled to $80bn (£45bn) a year by 2010.
In words echoing those of Bob Geldof to the Hyde Park crowd, the chancellor said: "Live Aid 20 years ago was about charity for the poor. Our aim [is] justice for the poor ...
How long until the world can achieve justice for the poor? Let us say not long ... because weeping may spend the night but joy comes in the morning," he said in conclusion.
There was some heckling from the audience. Hector Christie, the son of Sir George Christie, the founder of Glyndebourne Opera, raised his kilt to flash a grinning Tony Blair codpiece and questioned the chancellor's enthusiasm for the privatisation and liberalisation of developing countries' economies.
"When will you stop the rape of the poor's resources? Why are there so many conditions on aid?"
Full: guardian.co.ukAfrica is always 'becoming' something for some European. Whose 'universe'? Whose 'moral crusade'? Who is 'we'? This is indeed the 'greatest evil of our time,' the crude banality and reptilian emotionality and cynical hypocrisy. This is the devil.
Mark him well.
rootsie on 07.04.05 @ 07:24 AM CST [
link]
Greeks fight to stop ultra-right festival
Ultra-right parties from across Europe have caused uproar in Greece after announcing plans to stage a festival in a Peloponnesian town in the autumn.
The three-day event, organised by some of the continent's leading neo-Nazi groups and billed officially as a camping trip to "Hellas, land of the heroes", is intended to become a recruiting ground for young people.
"This unique gathering will combine comradeship with sport activities by the sea and, most importantly, an open congress with speeches on the descent of our national identity," the extremists say on their website.
"Turkey, out of Europe" is expected to be the main slogan of the September 16-18 meeting.
Germany's National Democratic party (NDP), Italy's Forza Nuova, Spain's La Falange, Romania's Noua Dreapta (the New Right) and Greece's Chryssi Avgi (Golden Dawn) have all pooled resources for the youth gathering. Old-guard fascists, including Udo Voigt, who heads the NDP, and Roberto Fiore of Forza Nuova plan to address the crowd.
Full: guardian.co.ukGosh these guys are irritating...when are the they going to get with this 21st century thing? You know, the iron fist in the velvet glove, the kinder gentler machine-gun hand...
rootsie on 07.04.05 @ 07:13 AM CST [
link]
Monster of the moment
Zimbabwe is being hypocritically vilified by the west for forced slum clearances that are routine throughout the developing worlld.
For a month now, the BBC, CNN, ITV and others have been reporting what has been portrayed as one of the greatest humanitarian and human rights disasters in years. At least 200,000 people - sometimes this figure grows to 250,000 or even 300,000 - are said to have been forcibly evicted from slum areas of Harare in Zimbabwe. The figure peaked last week at 1.5 million, but yesterday the BBC reckoned that bulldozers were now "crashing through the homes of 500,000 people".
In fact, only about 1.2 million people live in Harare and no one is suggesting that half the population has fled in terror or that most of the city has been wrecked. So where are all these allegedly terrorised people? A few thousand have been filmed in makeshift camps but not many more. Who is trying to count the numbers? They are almost always attributed to an unnamed person in an unnamed UN agency. But read the only UN statement on the evictions and it says nothing of 200,000 people.
The evictions - which are clearly happening on a wide scale - have been seized on by the west, and the former colonial power Britain in particular, as another reason to demonise President Mugabe and further humiliate long-suffering Zimbabwe. It's open season on the Harare regime and it appears that anyone can say anything they like without recourse to accuracy or reality. Whipped into a frenzy of hypocritical outrage, the EU, Britain and the US, as well as the World Bank - all of which have been responsible for millions of evictions in Africa and elsewhere as conditions of infrastructure projects - have rushed to condemn the "atrocities".
The vilification of Mugabe is now out of control. The UN security council and the G8 have been asked to debate the evictions, and Mugabe is being compared to Pol Pot in Cambodia. Meanwhile, the evictions are mentioned in the same breath as the genocide in Rwanda and ethnic cleansing in the Balkans - although perhaps only three people have so far accidentally died. Only at the very end of some reports is it said that the Harare city authority's stated reason for the evictions is to build better, legal houses for 150,000 people.
Perspective is needed. The summary removal of people at gunpoint from their homes is indefensible, almost certainly unnecessary, and probably economically counter-productive, but it is not unusual in the developing world. Every year millions of poor people are evicted to make way for tourism, dams, roads and airports, for events like the Olympics, and for the gentrification and beautification of cities, national parks and urban redevelopments.
...Mugabe is unacceptable to Britain and the west mainly because he has chosen to evict whites and redistribute land grabbed in colonial times. The fact that the African Union and other African leaders are not prepared to condemn him for the Harare evictions reflects the fact that they, too, recognise the injustice of the colonial land ownership inheritance and do not want to see Africa bullied again by the west.
Full: guardian.co.uk Aside from the very real questions about the veracity of Western reportage on Zimbabwe, India, for example, our great democratic ally, engages in this sort of actviity every single day. But India is an obedient client/child.
rootsie on 07.04.05 @ 07:09 AM CST [
link]
Humiliated once more
...What we are seeing now in this unprecedented media focus on Africa is a very old theme. In 1787 the slogan of the Quaker abolitionists was "Am I not a man and a brother?" But the radicalism of this rallying cry was belied by the image on the Anti-Slavery Society's seal of the African slave - he was on his knees. His liberty and dignity was
ours for the giving, not his for the taking. The relationship at this G8, more than 200 years later, is similarly framed: African as supplicant to the (mostly) white men.
An entire continent has been reduced to a "scar on the conscience of the world", stripped of its dignity and left more powerless than at any intervening point since 1787. The images we saw of Africans at Live 8 on Saturday were the dying, the starving and the desperately impoverished. Postcolonialism in a globalising economy is proving even more humiliating for Africa than colonialism: its huge wealth in natural resources sequestered in secret bank accounts; its commodities commanding ever-smaller prices; its vicious wars with the exported arms of the industrial world; its government policies dictated from Washington and Geneva. Even its suffering exploited to jerk us into attention and to supply our emotional self-gratification. To the partying Hyde Park crowd, Kofi Annan said "thank you". But for what?
Blair's Africa agenda is yet another expression of what Professor John Lonsdale, the Cambridge historian of Africa, described in a lecture last week as "the self-righteously civilising mission of the past two centuries" of Europe towards its neighbour. He concluded that "it is a construction that infantilises not only Africans, unable to fend for themselves, but us too, like
babies demanding the instant gratification of self-importance".Full: guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 07.04.05 @ 07:00 AM CST [
link]
Humiliated once more
...What we are seeing now in this unprecedented media focus on Africa is a very old theme. In 1787 the slogan of the Quaker abolitionists was "Am I not a man and a brother?" But the radicalism of this rallying cry was belied by the image on the Anti-Slavery Society's seal of the African slave - he was on his knees. His liberty and dignity was
ours for the giving, not his for the taking. The relationship at this G8, more than 200 years later, is similarly framed: African as supplicant to the (mostly) white men.
An entire continent has been reduced to a "scar on the conscience of the world", stripped of its dignity and left more powerless than at any intervening point since 1787. The images we saw of Africans at Live 8 on Saturday were the dying, the starving and the desperately impoverished. Postcolonialism in a globalising economy is proving even more humiliating for Africa than colonialism: its huge wealth in natural resources sequestered in secret bank accounts; its commodities commanding ever-smaller prices; its vicious wars with the exported arms of the industrial world; its government policies dictated from Washington and Geneva. Even its suffering exploited to jerk us into attention and to supply our emotional self-gratification. To the partying Hyde Park crowd, Kofi Annan said "thank you". But for what?
Blair's Africa agenda is yet another expression of what Professor John Lonsdale, the Cambridge historian of Africa, described in a lecture last week as "the self-righteously civilising mission of the past two centuries" of Europe towards its neighbour. He concluded that "it is a construction that infantilises not only Africans, unable to fend for themselves, but us too, like
babies demanding the instant gratification of self-importance".Full: guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 07.04.05 @ 06:59 AM CST [
link]
Bush rejects Kyoto-style G8 deal
President George W Bush has ruled out US backing for any Kyoto-style deal on climate change at the G8 summit.
Speaking to British broadcaster ITV, he said he would instead be talking to fellow leaders about new technologies as a way of tackling global warming.
But he conceded that the issue was one "we've got to deal with" and said human activity was "to some extent" to blame.
Tony Blair is hoping for agreements on climate change and Africa when he hosts the summit in Scotland this week.
Mr Bush said he would resist any packet of measures that are similar to the 1997 UN Kyoto protocol, involving legally binding reduction on carbon emissions, that Washington never ratified.
"If this looks like Kyoto, the answer is no," he said in an interview with ITV's Tonight With Trevor McDonald programme to be broadcast on Monday evening.
"The Kyoto treaty would have wrecked our economy, if I can be blunt."
He said he hoped the other G8 leaders would "move beyond the Kyoto debate" and consider new technologies as a way of tackling global warming.
Full: bbc.co.ukyes, well... we will acknowledge the existence of global warming once we find a way to make money from it.
rootsie on 07.04.05 @ 06:54 AM CST [
link]
Key Bush aide named in row over CIA leak
President George Bush's right hand man, Karl Rove, yesterday found himself at the centre of the controversy over who revealed the name of a secret CIA agent, after Newsweek revealed that he was a source for a story that appeared in Time magazine and for which two reporters are facing prison.
In a development that could prove extremely damaging to the Bush administration, two lawyers close to the case say that emails between the Time reporter who wrote the story and his editors indicate that the reporter spoke to Mr Rove.
Mr Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, confirmed that his client had been interviewed by Matthew Cooper for the article, but denied that Mr Rove provided the crucial information that exposed the identity of the agent.
Mr Luskin told Newsweek that Mr Rove "never knowingly disclosed classified information".
But the two lawyers who spoke to Newsweek said there was growing concern that prosecutors now have their sights set on Mr Rove, the architect of Mr Bush's rise.
Full: guardian.co.ukWell, a rise is normally accompanied by a leak. Sorry! Silly this morning.
rootsie on 07.04.05 @ 06:50 AM CST [
link]
Nasa probe strikes Comet Tempel 1
US space agency (Nasa) scientists are celebrating after seeing a probe crash into the heart of a comet.
The washing machine-sized "impactor" collided with Comet Tempel 1 at a relative speed of 37,000km/h, throwing up a huge plume of icy debris.
The probe's mothership, the Deep Impact spacecraft, watched the event from a safe distance, sending images to Earth.
Dr Don Yeomans, a Nasa mission scientist, was ecstatic: "We hit it just exactly where we wanted to.
"The impact was bigger than I expected, and bigger than most of us expected. We've got all the data we could possibly ask for."
Full: bbc.co.ukDeep Impact (poem)
nothing pleases
male more
than when his probe
hits home.
rootsie on 07.04.05 @ 06:45 AM CST [
link]
Saturday, July 2nd
'Pressuring' G8 Nations?
by Rootsie
“Pressuring G8 nations to end extreme poverty in Africa”
NPR, Sat. July 2, 2005
I have done a lot of writing on this subject of Africa, and ‘aid’ and imperialism, of the inevitable toxicity of all European and US approaches to Africa and the rest of the nonwhite world. I learned at the feet of my black colleagues at trinicenter.com, and from a certain Palestinian scholar. And bottom-line, that is the point. These things are not things whites can teach one another. There is no way out of this global morass if whites are unwilling to let the worst victims lead us all out of it.
The idea that Bob Geldof, Bono, and company are ‘pressuring’ G8 countries to address African poverty is pure fiction. Those following the news over the past months know that the ‘debt-relief’ proposals for Africa originate from Tony Blair and Gordon Brown at 10 Downing St. in anticipation of Britain’s term as head of the G8 countries. This ‘Make Poverty History’ business is not some spontaneous populist uprising. You have to look to places like Venezuela and Bolivia for that. No, this is nothing more than a monstrous propaganda stunt designed to rubber-stamp the new scramble for Africa, for her oil and gas and minerals, all in the name of humanitarian mercy, pity, and charity. Well as old William Blake wrote 200 years ago, “Mercy would be no more/ If we did not make somebody poor.”
This is a very old story. During the era in which Britain controlled over 80% of the world’s land mass, all manner of triumphalist claims were made for this great ‘civilizing mission’ of theirs, perhaps no better expressed than in Rudyard Kipling’s “Whiteman’s Burden”:
Take up the White Man's burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go, bind your sons to exile
To serve your captive's need;
To wait, in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
Take up the White Man's burden--
In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another's profit
And work another's gain.
Take up the White Man's burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine,
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
(The end for others sought)
Watch sloth and heathen folly
Bring all your hopes to nought...
In his study of imperialist discourse, the late Professor Edward Said points out:
"Kipling himself could not merely have happened; the same is true of his White Man. Such ideas and their authors emerge out of complex historical and cultural circumstances...One of them is the culturally sanctioned habit of deploying large generalizations by which reality is divided into various collectives...Underlying these categories is the rigidly binomial opposition of 'ours' and 'theirs', with the former always encroaching upon the latter...'Our' values were (let us say) liberal, humane, correct; they were supported by the tradition of belles-lettres, informed scholarship, rational inquiry...An imposing edifice of learning and culture was built, so to speak, in the face of actual outsiders (colonies, the poor, the delinquent)
whose role in the culture was to give definition to what they were constitutionally unsuited for." (Said,
Orientalism, 227-28)
According to Bush and Blair, 'they' are constitutionally unsuited for democracy and self-government, and naturally need a whole lot of help from 'us'. In fact our perception of 'their' brokenness has largely defined us.
The ‘opposition’ to the Blair proposals, like the Royal Africa Society, warns that the billions in aid poured into Africa (with no word of the trillions taken out) have had no effect due to the 'corruption' that afflicts African governments. For more than 30 years of Mobutu Sosu Seke’s reign of terror in Congo, the man for whom was coined the term ‘kleptocrat,’ American presidents and British PM’s from Kennedy to Reagan and Wilson to Thatcher celebrated him as the great voice of reason and moderation in Africa. He was their creation, and an obedient one. It is thus difficult to see what Bush and Blair mean by ‘corruption.’ Blair threatened the African Union to ‘do something’ about President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe as a prime example of the sort of thing they’re referring to. The last man standing from the anti-colonial struggle, the one who moves to get indigenous land back from white farmers, the one who rebuffs UN and European offers of ‘aid’, saying instead ‘we will do it ourselves.’
Whatever else Mugabe might be or do, it is this that makes him odious to Bush and Blair. When ‘corruption’ serves their interests, they are most willing to shut up about it, and even to aid and abet it.
Who knows, maybe Geldof and Bono have all the best intentions. Personally, I think they're royal jesters, clowns and dupes. The fact remains that they are stuck in the imperialist paradigm, as is every white until she or he does the work to break out of it. It was Professor Edward Said who taught me to observe the language of imperialism. Watch the discourse. It has remained essentially unchanged since the Crusades. “Make Poverty History”:
who is the doer, the maker, the master of history? And
what is Africa to them but a silent, sullen, giant existing only as an object to have things done to it, for it? In the imperial view, Africa is “a theatrical stage affixed to Europe.” (Said,
Orientalism, 48) And this latest imperial pageant is particularly nauseating when we remember that these great saviors of Africa are the ones who ruined her in the first place, not to mention the fact that they are presently reducing Iraq to rubble.
How do you talk about ‘aid’ and ‘debt forgiveness’ in reference to a place you have despoiled and robbed and continue so to do? You are able to think in these terms because everyone in Europe and the U.S., even the left, operates under the assumption that “we” alone are capable of knowing what’s good for “them,” and have the resources and might to “fix” the world. I heard an 'activist' saying that the rich nations alone have the ability to eradicate poverty. What makes us think so?
What if causes have effects? What if centuries of aggressive imperialism have rendered the West morally exhausted and incapable of doing anything good for anyone? Jean Paul Sartre said as much back in 1961:
“1961. Listen: ‘Let us waste no time in sterile litanies and nauseating mimicry. Leave this Europe where they are never done talking of Man, yet murder men everywhere they find them, at the corner of every one of their own streets, in all the corners of the globe. For centuries they have stifled almost the whole of humanity in the name of a so-called spiritual experience.’ The tone is new. Who dares to speak thus? It is an African, a man from the Third World, an ex-‘native’. He adds: ‘Europe now lives at such a mad, reckless pace that she is running headlong into the abyss; we would do well to keep away from it.’ In other words, she’s done for. A truth which is not pleasant to state but of which we are all convinced, are we not, fellow-Europeans, in the marrow of our bones?” (Sartre, Preface to Frantz Fanon’s
The Wretched of the Earth)
“Leave this Europe”, Fanon proclaims to his fellow ‘natives’. Leave the West. Like Chavez in Venezuela, use their greed for your treasure against them. Demand reparations. Make them sign a pledge to leave you alone. Tell them you have no interest in their cracked idea of a ‘world economic community.’
Young privileged people across the planet today are being treated to a big fun-fest. They are raised to expect such things, for they are given seemingly endless opportunities to feel they are good and kind and charitable, no matter what carnage their tax dollars happen to be paying for today.
Even if Live8 was what they say it is, a great outpouring of human charity, it’s nauseating. But this hoopla conceals the wicked intentions of corporate imperialists out to privatize the planet and divide up the spoils like vultures. But that’s an insult to the vultures, who only do what they are made for. If humans could only learn to do the same.
“’We can sit and watch. Of course, some day we shall step in. We are bound to. But there’s no hurry. Time itself has got to wait on the greatest country in the whole of God’s universe. We shall be giving the word for everything—industry, trade, law, journalism, art, politics, and religion, from Cape Horn clear over to Surith’s Sound, and beyond it, too, if anything worth taking hold of turns up at the North Pole. And then we shall have the leisure to take in hand the outlying continents and islands of the earth. We shall run the world’s business whether the world likes it or not. The world can’t help it—and neither can we, I guess.’ (Joseph Conrad,
Nostromo)
Much of the rhetoric of the “New World Order” promulgated by the American government since the end of the Cold War—with its redolent self-congratulation, its unconcealed triumphalism, its grave proclamations of responsibility—might have been scripted by Conrad’s Holyroyd: we are number one, we are bound to lead, we stand for freedom and order, and so on. No American has been immune from this structure of feeling….it is a rhetoric whose most damning characteristic is that it has been used before…with deafeningly repetitive frequency in the modern period, by the British, the French, the Belgians, the Japanese, the Russians, and now the Americans.” (Said,
Culture and Imperialism, xvii).
rootsie on 07.02.05 @ 10:09 PM CST [
link]
Friday, July 1st
'We should not be ashamed'
An attack by Gordon Brown on the "hypocrisy" of Europe and other rich countries for pledging aid to Africa while imposing unfair trade barriers was today dismissed by the head of the EU's executive arm.
In a sign of the gulf between Britain and many of its European partners on the eve of the G8 summit next week, Jose Manuel Barroso declared that the EU had nothing to be ashamed of because it had the world's most open markets to developing countries.
"Europe is the most open market to developing countries by far," the European commission president told Guardian Unlimited.
Speaking ahead of London talks with Tony Blair to mark the start of Britain's six month EU presidency today, Mr Barroso said: "We should not be ashamed - on the contrary.
"In terms of the access to our markets for the less developed countries, we have almost no quotas or tariffs - the so-called 'everything but arms' initiative. What I hope is to engage others in the developed world to be as open and generous."
Full: guardian.co.ukThey are all hypocrites and should all be ashamed, but they have no shame.
rootsie on 07.01.05 @ 08:27 PM CST [
link]
A Summer Surprise
by Gary Leupp
..."We may be looking at a summer of simultaneous crises on opposite sides of the world," says "one of Mr. Bush's closest aides" to David E. Sanger of the New York Times. Sanger takes that to mean Iran and North Korea, neither of which wants to provoke a crisis, both of which want to be left alone but are confronted with an administration that wants to defeat them while it remains in power. The summer crises if they come will be contrived, involve lies, shamelessly manipulate the stupider sectors of public opinion and probably require further assaults on civil liberties. I don't think another Korean War is in the cards; the "crisis" in Korea can simmer indefinitely. All it does is make the U.S. look unreasonable, in the eyes of the Chinese and most other people; encourage South Korean sympathy with Northern compatriots striving to stave off imperialist attack; and give the Japanese right an opportunity to jettison Japan's "pacifist" constitution. I think the real summer crisis will be the Middle Eastern one.
So Iran or Syria, I was thinking. But the fairly reputable Jane's Intelligence Digest points in another direction. It reports that Rumsfeld plans a "confrontation with Syrian troops" in the Bekaa Valley soon. That's in Lebanon, from whence the UN has confirmed that Syria, in haste, has recently withdrawn (in response to bulling U.S. demands) the troops sent long ago---at Lebanese Christians' request---to mediate in a brutal civil war. But constantly raising the bar, the U.S. insists that Syria withdraw all its intelligence agents from Lebanon too. Washington will---just watch---keep asserting without evidence that Syria's intelligence apparatus, which like any such apparatus is invisible, hard to identify or quantify, remains in Lebanon screwing with Lebanese politics in a way that, say, the U.S. CIA never screws with anybody.
Weak, divided, pulverized Lebanon may well be the next stage for U.S. aggression. That would keep the ball rolling. Bush would refer to the Bekaa Valley as "the latest battleground in the war on terrorism"---all in response to 9-11 when the terrorists attacked us. "Better get them in Lebanon than face them here," he'll spew, and some will swallow it. They'll buy the notion that Hizbollah, a Shiite-based mainstream highly popular political party with an armed wing in southern Lebanon, which embarrassed the U.S. by organizing massive demonstrations dwarfing the its client parties in Lebanon last month, is an al-Qaeda type terrorist organization. They'll surely bring up the Reagan-era Hizbollah attack on the U.S. force in Lebanon that shouldn't have been there to begin with, since it was just deployed to abet Israel's criminal invasion.
Full: counterpunch.org
rootsie on 07.01.05 @ 08:22 PM CST [
link]
Newton's alchemy manuscript found
Sir Isaac Newton, famous for his revolutionary work in mathematics, optics, gravity and the laws of motion, had a secret hobby. A collection of his notes thought to have been lost 70 years ago reveal his passion for alchemy and fruitless attempts to turn lead into gold.
His handwritten notes, commenting on the work of other famous 17th century alchemists and documenting his own attempts to manufacture precious metals, were rediscovered in the vaults of the Royal Society and will go on display for the first time next week at the its summer science exhibition.
The notes were originally uncovered following Newton's death in 1727, but they were never properly documented and were thought to be lost following their sale for £15 at an auction at Sotheby's in July 1936. But during the cataloguing of the society's miscellaneous manuscripts collection the notes were discovered and, with the help of Imperial College's Newton Project, were identified as being the papers that had disappeared nearly 70 years before.
Newton kept hidden his occasional interest in alchemy during his lifetime, in part because the making of gold or silver was a felony and had been since a law was passed by Henry IV in 1404. But throughout his career he, and other scientists of the time, many of whom were fellows of the society, carried out extensive research into alchemy.
Full: guardian.co.uk
rootsie on 07.01.05 @ 08:17 PM CST [
link]
Senate Approves Central American Free Trade Pact
WASHINGTON, June 30 - After a bitter and prolonged battle over the promises and perils of foreign trade, the Senate voted on Thursday to approve the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
The vote of 54 to 45, which came after weeks of efforts to placate angry sugar producers and other interest groups, was a major victory for President Bush at a time when Republicans and Democrats alike have been alarmed about soaring imports from low-cost countries.
The vote set the stage for an even more difficult fight in the House, where opposition to the trade pact is strong among lawmakers from textile regions in the South, manufacturing states in the Midwest and sugar- producing areas like Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota and Wyoming.
The pact would eliminate most trade restrictions on about $32 billion in annual trade with the Dominican Republic and the five Central American nations of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua.
Though the volume of trade involved is tiny in comparison to that with China or Europe, both Mr. Bush and his opponents have viewed the pact as a crucial touchstone to the broader challenges of globalization.
Full: nytimes.com
rootsie on 07.01.05 @ 08:12 PM CST [
link]
U.S. to Retain Oversight of Web Traffic
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- A unilateral decision by the United States to indefinitely retain oversight of the Internet's main traffic-directing computers prompted concerns Friday that the global telecommunications network could eventually splinter.
''This seems like an extension of American security in the aftermath of 9-11,'' said John Strand, a Denmark-based technology consultant. ''People will ask: `Do the Americans want to control the Internet?'''
Washington's decision, announced Thursday, departs from previously stated U.S. policy.
Many countries favor gradually releasing oversight of the Internet's so-called ''root servers'' to an international body, and a showdown on the issue could come in November at a U.N. information society summit to be held in Tunisia. A U.N. report this month on Internet governance is expected to address the issue.
Michael D. Gallagher, an assistant secretary at the U.S. Commerce Department, said in announcing the policy shift Thursday that it was a response to growing security threats and increased reliance on the Internet globally for communications and commerce.
But the explanation did little to allay fears that the United States is overstepping its boundaries and locking its grip on the Internet.
Full: nytimes.com
rootsie on 07.01.05 @ 07:42 PM CST [
link]
WTC Basement Blast And Injured Burn Victim Blows 'Official 9/11 Story' Sky High; Eye Witness Testimony Is Conclusive That North Tower Collapsed From Controlled Demolition
What happened to William Rodriguez the morning of 9/11 is a miracle. What happened to his story after-the-fact is a tragedy.
But with miracles and tragedies comes truth. And truth is exactly what Rodriguez brings to the whole mystery surrounding 9/11.
Declared a hero for saving numerous lives at Ground Zero, he was the janitor on duty the morning of 9/11 who heard and felt explosions rock the basement sub-levels of the north tower just seconds before the jetliner struck the top floors.
He not only claims he felt explosions coming from below the first sub-level while working in the basement, he says the walls were cracking around him and he pulled a man to safety by the name of Felipe David, who was severely burned from the basement explosions.
All these events occurred only seconds before and during the jetliner strike above. And through it all, he now asks a simple question everybody should be asking? How could a jetliner hit 90 floors above and burn a man’s arms and face to a crisp in the basement below within seconds of impact?
Rodriguez claims this was impossible and clearly demonstrates a controlled demolition brought down the WTC, saying "Let’s see them (the government) try to wiggle out of this one."
Full: arcticbeacon.com
rootsie on 07.01.05 @ 07:38 PM CST [
link]
