If I Were A Terrorist

What I would do if I was a terrorist.

US Air Force planned nuclear strike on China over Taiwan

The United States Air Force had considered a plan to drop nuclear bombs on China during a confrontation over Taiwan in 1958 but it was overruled, declassified documents showed Wednesday.

When he learned about it, President Dwight Eisenhower instead required the Air Force to initially use conventional bombs against Chinese forces if the crisis escalated, according to previously secret US Air Force history.

The president's instructions seemingly astounded the Air Force top brass but the author of one of the studies released said US policymakers recognized that atomic strikes had "inherent disadvantages" because of the fall-out danger in the region as well as the risk of nuclear escalation.

The report on the crisis by Bernard Nalty, a then historian with the Air Force, included significant detail on nuclear planning, including an initial plan to drop 10-15 kiloton bombs on airfields in Amoy (now called Xiamen) in the event of a Chinese blockade against Taiwan's so-called Offshore Islands.

"This was in accordance with the drift of Air Force thinking which considered nuclear weapons as usable as 'iron bombs,'" according to the report released Wednesday by the National Security Archive.

The body, a non-governmental research institute at George Washington University in Washington, collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act.

"Of course, if there was a real war who knows what would have happened but there wasn't fortunately," William Burr, senior analyst at the National Security Archive, told AFP.

McCain accused of accepting improper donations from Rothschilds

A US campaign watchdog has accused presumptive Republican president nominee John McCain of violating election laws by accepting campaign contributions from two prominent Londoners.

At issue is a fundraising luncheon held in March at London's Spencer House, during McCain's swing through the United Kingdom. An invitation to the event lists Lord Rothschild and Nathaniel Rothschild as hosts, and indicates the event was made possible with their "kind permission".

Judicial Watch, a Washington organisation instrumental in the March release of Hillary Clinton's White House schedules, has asked US election monitors to investigate whether the Rothschilds improperly sponsored the fundraiser. US political campaigns are forbidden from accepting contributions from foreign nationals.

"The question is whether or not the Rothschilds paid for the event, the venue, the catering, or any other related costs," said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton.

Tickets to the event cost $1,000 to $2,300, and the luncheon dress code was "lounge suits," the Washington Post reported in March.

The McCain campaign did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Judicial Watch also complained to the US election authority, the federal election commission, about Elton John's involvement in Clinton's campaign. The group alleged the British rocker broke US campaign laws by performing at a fundraiser for the New York senator. The Clinton campaign argued US law allowed the British musician to volunteer his time and solicit Americans for contributions.

The federal election commission is unlikely to act soon on the group's McCain complaint. It is currently short-handed, a result of a political squabble between the Democratic-led senate and the Bush administration, and lacks a quorum to take action. London Guardian

Israel and its American maidservant ready to strike Iran

A second American aircraft carrier steamed into the Persian Gulf on Tuesday as the Pentagon ordered military commanders to develop new options for attacking Iran. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports that the planning is being driven by what one officer called the "increasingly hostile role" Iran is playing in Iraq - smuggling weapons into Iraq for use against American troops.

"What the Iranians are doing is killing American servicemen and -women inside Iraq," said Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

U.S. officials are also concerned by Iranian harassment of U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf as well as Iran's still growing nuclear program. New pictures of Iran's uranium enrichment plant show the country's defense minister in the background, as if deliberately mocking a recent finding by U.S. intelligence that Iran had ceased work on a nuclear weapon.

No attacks are imminent and the last thing the Pentagon wants is another war, but Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen has warned Iran not to assume the U.S. military can't strike.

"I have reserve capability, in particular our Navy and our Air Force so it would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," Mullen said.

Targets would include everything from the plants where weapons are made to the headquarters of the organization known as the Quds Force which directs operations in Iraq. Later this week Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expected to confront the Iranians with evidence of their meddling and demand a halt.

If that doesn't produce results, the State Department has begun drafting an ultimatum that would tell the Iranians to knock it off - or else. CBS
The decision to launch a war against Iran was made before 9/11.

151 Congressmen Profit From War

Who profits from the Iraq war? More than a quarter of senators and congressmen have invested at least $196 million of their own money in companies doing business with the Department of Defense (DoD) that profit from the death and destruction in Iraq.

According to the latest reports, 151 members of Congress invested close to a quarter-billion in companies that received defense contracts of at least $5 million in 2006. These companies got more than $275.6 billion from the government in 2006, or $755 million per day, according to FedSpending.org, a website of the watchdog group OMBWatch.

Congressmen gave themselves a loophole so they only have to report their assets in broad ranges. Thus, they can be off as much as 160 percent. (Try giving the IRS an estimate like that.) In 2004, the first full year after the present Iraq war began, Republican and Democratic lawmakers—both hawks and doves—invested between $74.9 million and $161.3 million in companies under contract with the DoD. In 2006 Democrats had at least $3.7 million invested in the defense sector alone, compared to the Republicans’ “only” $577,500. As the war raged on, so did the billions of profits—and personal investments by Congress members in war contractors, which increased 5 percent from 2004 to 2006.

Investments in these contractors yielded Congress members between $15.8 million and $62 million in personal income from 2004 through 2006, through dividends, capital gains, royalties and interest. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), who are two of Congress’s wealthiest members, were among the lawmakers who garnered the most income from war contractors between 2004 and 2006: Sensenbrenner got at least $3.2 million and Kerry reaped at least $2.6 million.

Members of the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees which oversee the Iraq war had between $32 million and $44 million invested in companies with DoD contracts.

War hawk Sen. Joe Lieberman (IConn.), chairman of the defense-related
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, had at least $51,000 invested in these companies in 2006.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), who voted for Bush’s war, had stock in defense companies, such as Honeywell, Boeing and Raytheon, but sold the stock in May 2007.

Of the 151 members whose investments are tied to the “defense” (war)
industry, as far as we know, not one of them offered to donate their bloodstained profits to the national treasury to offset the terrible debt they have imposed. Has one of them even offered to donate one cent of their war profits to lessen the debt that increases more than $1 million a minute? More

'Israel preparing to bomb Iran N-sites'

The commander of the Israeli Air Force says the regime's decision makers have been preparing plans to take out Iran's nuclear facilities.

General Eliezer Shkedi, who also heads the Israeli task force on Iran, made the remarks in an interview with "60 Minutes" on Sunday.

A large portion of Shkedi's service has been dedicated to the preparation for a possible mission that was never discussed in public; an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, should international economic sanctions fail, Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported on Monday.

Shkedi spoke of a mission in 1981, when Israeli war planes attacked a nuclear reactor in Iraq.

He went on to say that today the Israeli decision makers are faced with a similar choice about Iran's nuclear program.

Israeli and US officials accuse Iran of seeking nuclear bombs.

Iran, a member of the IAEA and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), maintains that its nuclear activates are solely aimed at peaceful purposes.

Tehran has warned Tel Aviv of a crushing response, in case the regime launches an attack on the Islamic Republic. Press TV

McCain proposes League of Democracies to bypass U.N.

Sen. John McCain says that if he's elected president, he wants to create a worldwide "League of Democracies" to "revive democratic solidarity" and bypass gridlock at the United Nations.

"The new League of Democracies would form the core of an international order of peace based on freedom. It could act where the U.N. fails to act," such as in Darfur, McCain says in advance excerpts of a speech he's making Tuesday to the Hoover Institution.

According to the excerpts, provided by his campaign, McCain envisions the new organization taking on AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa and "the crisis in our environment." He says it could also put pressure on tyrants in Burma or Zimbabwe "with or without Moscow's and Beijing's approval."

Sounds like Russia and China might not be invited to join. Asked about that, McCain spokesman Danny Diaz declined to elaborate.

McCain says he would call a summit of world democracies in his first year to explore the practical steps needed to realize his vision. USA Today

Update at 8:30 a.m. ET, May 1: There's an Associated Press story on McCain's proposal here.
He means the Axis of Evil USSA/UK/israel

WAR ON IRAQ HELMET CAM FIGHTING

Fast action gun democracy and freedom door to door raids in iraq as well as footage of the Iraqi guards fighting alongside the Special Forces. Helmet cam.

US, Czech delay signing missile deal

The signing of a treaty on the deployment of a US missile shield near Prague has been delayed as Czech citizens continue their protest.

Negotiators had been unable to set a date for the official signing, said Czech Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalova on Monday.

"We have tried for May 5, but we did not succeed,'' she added without elaborating.

This came amid the announcement of the US embassy in Prague three weeks ago that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would travel to the Czech capital in early May to sign the treaty.

Later on Monday, Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said the deal could be signed in early June together with a secondary treaty that deals with issues including taxes and the legal status of US soldiers to be deployed to the Czech territory.

Both treaties will need parliamentary approval and negotiations on the second, "complementary'' treaty have not been concluded yet.

The proposed US missile defense system calls for a tracking radar in the Czech Republic and 10intercepotors missile in Poland. More

Iran discusses "serious" nuclear ideas with Russia

Iran discussed with Russia on Monday its proposals to defuse a nuclear row with the West, which accuses Tehran of seeking to build atomic bombs.

Iran said earlier this month it would unveil ideas to help end the dispute over its nuclear ambitions, which have prompted three rounds of U.N. sanctions since 2006 for its refusal to heed U.N. demands to halt sensitive uranium enrichment work.

But a senior Iranian official said Tehran would never negotiate over its right to nuclear technology, suggesting Iran is not willing to rein in its work in line with U.N. demands.

"Iran ... has serious proposals regarding the nuclear issue, about what to do to minimize the nuclear threat around the world," Jalili said without giving specifics about the package.

The proposals were discussed with Valentin Sobolev, acting secretary of Russia's National Security Council, an Iranian official said. Further talks would be held on Tuesday, he added.

Jalili said the ideas addressed security and political issues and would underpin "talks among influential and major powers, and Iran as a major power in the region can play an important role."

A senior diplomat in Europe said Iran had earlier proposed turning its Natanz enrichment complex into a multilateral operation to counter foreign fears of diversions to bombmaking there, and that this might be among Iran's proposals. Reuters

MI5 accused of colluding in torture of terrorist suspects

Officers of the Security Service, MI5, are being accused of "outsourcing" the torture of British citizens to a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency in an attempt to obtain information about terrorist plots and to secure convictions against al-Qaida suspects.

A number of British terrorism suspects who have been arrested in Pakistan at the request of UK authorities say their interrogation by Security Service officers, shortly after brutal torture at the hands of agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), has convinced them that MI5 colluded in the mistreatment.

Those men have given detailed accounts of their alleged ordeals at the hands of the ISI over the last four years. Some of them appear to have been taken to the same secret interrogation centre in Rawalpindi, where they say they were repeatedly tortured before being questioned by MI5.

Tayab Ali, a London-based lawyer for two of the men, said: "I am left with no doubt that, at the very worst, the British Security Service instigates the illegal detention and torture of British citizens, and at the very best turns a blind eye to torture."

One man from Manchester says that in 2006 he was beaten, whipped, deprived of sleep and had three fingernails slowly extracted by ISI agents at the Rawalpindi centre before being interrogated by two MI5 officers. A number of his alleged associates were questioned in Manchester at the same time and two were subsequently charged. This man's lawyers say his fingernails were missing when they were eventually allowed to see him, more than a year after he was first detained. They say they have pathology reports that prove the nails were forcibly removed. London Guardian

Russia warns of harsh response to Georgian provocations

Russia's Defense Ministry issued a stern warning to Georgia on Tuesday over its actions in its conflict zones, and pledged to deploy more Russian peacekeepers in the area.

The ministry said that violence against Russians in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, breakaway Georgian provinces, would be met with tough reprisals from the Russian side.

"Any attempts by Georgia to use force to resolve the conflicts, or to employ violent measures against Russian peacekeepers or Russian citizens living in Abkhazia and South Ossetia will encounter an appropriate and tough response," the ministry said in a statement.

The statement said Georgian aggression has forced Russia to increase peacekeeping numbers in the conflict zones.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Georgia is preparing to launch a military operation against Abkhazia.

Georgia is amassing troops, weaponry, ammunition, food and material supplies in the upper Kodori region on the border with Abkhazia, the statement said.

"The number of troops and police exceeds 1,500... The composition of the contingent indicates that Georgia is preparing to launch a military operation against Abkhazia," the ministry said.

Israel: Allies won't oppose Iran strike

Israel's deputy prime minister Shaul Mofaz has warned that the Israeli regime's allies would not oppose a military strike against Iran.

"If Israel is attacked by missiles, we will not fold our arms and our allies will not be opposed," said the Israeli top strategic negotiator with the US.

Mofaz expressed concern over what he described as an Iran-led radical front in the Middle East 'gaining more and more power each year.'

"And we have to find the weaknesses and change this situation because we see more influence of Iran in our region," Mofaz said, adding that this was the main topic of his meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Mofaz, who is in Washington as part of the US-Israeli strategic dialogue on mutual security concerns, said further talks will be held on the issue of UN Security Council sanctions imposed on Iran.

"I believe our policy about Iran is in the right direction, but we have to check the effectiveness of the sanctions so far," he told reporters in Washington.

On his way to Washington on Monday, Mofaz claimed that 'all the options are on the table in order to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weaponry'.

Israel insists that the UN Security Council sanctions, issued under pressure from bullying powers on claims that the Islamic Republic is seeking nuclear weaponry, are not bold enough.

This is while Tehran has repeatedly denied allegations of pursuing nuclear arms, maintaining that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the country is entitled to the civilian use of nuclear technology. Source

Iran: UK behind 1980 embassy siege

Iran says the 1980 siege of the Iranian embassy in London was orchestrated by the UK government in a bid to serve American interests.

Deputy Head of Iran's Armed Forces Headquarters, Brigadier General Seyyed Massoud Jazayeri, described the siege laid by a six-man terrorist team to Iran's embassy on April 30, 1980 as a politically-motivated operation directed by the then British government.

"Subsequent investigations into the matter revealed that the terrorist operation had been led by the British government as part of an effort to assist the US government in the issue of the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran in November 1979."

Gen. Jazayeri said according to the international law, the UK government is obliged to compensate for the mental scars left by the incident even if it is presumed that it did not have a hand in the incident.

The Iranian commander urged further investigations into the still-open case, adding the matter called for an official apology from the British government to the Islamic Republic.

On the morning of Wednesday April 30, 1980, six gunmen attacked the Iranian embassy in London and held 26 people hostage. After a six-day stand-off, the Special Air Service (SAS) launched a dramatic attack on the hostage-takers, bringing the siege to an end with 19 hostages freed, seven dead, and many injured. Press TV

Top Russian official goes to Iran to discuss security

TEHRAN, April 27 (RIA Novosti) - A top Russian official is arriving in Tehran on Sunday to discuss security, topical international and regional issues, the Supreme National Security Council of Iran said on Sunday.

Valentin Sobolev, acting secretary of Russia's National Security Council, will hold talks with his Iranian counterpart, Saeed Jalili, and other Iranian officials.

Sobolev will be paying a return visit to Tehran following a visit by Jalili to Moscow in December 2007, Iran's Supreme National Security Council said. Link

Is War With Iran Imminent?

This time, it's more than a rumor…The shooting has already started in the Persian Gulf – and chances are we'll be at war with Iran before President Bush's term is up. An American ship under contract with the U.S. Navy – the Western Venture – claims it was in international waters when Iranian speedboats approached and failed to answer radio calls.

Shots were fired on the American side. Iran denies the whole thing. Yet you'll recall that in the last incident, involving the capture of British sailors, the story about being in international waters was the same – except, it turns out, they weren't in international waters, but in disputed waters, just as we speculated in this space. There's no reason to expect anything different this time. Clearly, the U.S. and Britain are trying to trigger a new conflict with the most brazen provocations, and they don't really care how it happens – only that it does.

The indications of an imminent attack – the latest incident, the steady stream of accusations coming from the U.S. regarding Iranian influence in Iraq, the nuclear charade, etc. – have suddenly taken a more ominous turn with the recent statement of America's top military officer that the U.S. is weighing military action against Iran. The Washington Post reports:

"The nation's top military officer said yesterday that the Pentagon is planning for 'potential military courses of action' as one of several options against Iran, criticizing what he called the Tehran government's 'increasingly lethal and malign influence' in Iraq. Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a conflict with Iran would be 'extremely stressing' but not impossible for U.S. forces, pointing to reserve capabilities in the Navy and Air Force."

Speaking of malign influences: since when does an American military officer make foreign policy pronouncements, as if he were the president? It's an indication of the advances militarism has made in what used to be a republic that no one has so much as blinked at the brazenness of such blatant Caesarism.

The reasons for the uptick in the rhetorical and physical assault on Iran by the Americans are entirely due to domestic politics, not anything occurring on the ground in the region. Antiwar

Russia's richest man sees Putin in charge to 2020

Russia's richest man, Oleg Deripaska, has said he is convinced Vladimir Putin will remain fully in charge of Russia until 2020, even though he is stepping down as president on May 7.

The media-shy business mogul, with interests stretching from metals and oil to airports and cement, also said that the West should stop fearing Russia.

"I see no political risks (after May 7). Living in Russia makes me confident," he said in a rare chat with journalists in one of Moscow's top restaurants, the Cafe Pushkin. His comments on Friday were embargoed for publication on Sunday.

Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's chosen successor who won the March presidential election with a landslide, will be sworn in on May 7 but the hugely popular Putin has vowed to be prime minister.

Medvedev has pledged loyalty to his political mentor and promised to implement "the Putin plan," a set of goals to make Russia a developed country by 2020. Reuters

UN troops 'armed DR Congo rebels'

The UN has covered up claims that its troops in Democratic Republic of Congo gave arms to militias and smuggled gold and ivory, the BBC has learned.

The allegations, based on confidential UN sources, involve Pakistani and Indian troops working as peacekeepers.

The UN investigated some of the claims in 2007, but said it could not substantiate claims of arms dealing. UN insiders told the BBC's Panorama they had been prevented from pursuing their inquiries for political reasons.

Gold and ivory

The United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Monuc) is the global body's largest, with 17,000 troops spread across the country.

The BBC's Martin Plaut, who returned to DR Congo to follow up his initial investigation into the allegations, says they have managed to bring a measure of stability since they were first established by the UN in February 2000.

They have also helped disarm the warring factions, run democratic elections and assisted with reconstruction. BBC

Israeli spies scour web for threats

Israeli spies use chatrooms and internet sites to search for future attacks from Islamists.

Using conventional on-line detective methods, former Israeli army intelligence analysts join "Terrogence", a 'one-stop shop' in intelligence. The company offers both government intelligence agencies and private clients freelance services in scouring the Internet for signs of the next Islamist attack.

'All options on table against Iran'

The Zionist regime says it is pondering all options against Iran, accusing the Islamic Republic of pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

The Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said late Sunday Iran must be prevented from gaining nuclear weapons, adding that all options were on the table against Tehran, The Jerusalem Post reported.

Mofaz made the remark as he headed a delegation to Washington for talks on the Israel-US Strategic Dialogue.

"Teheran leads the axis of evil, poses a threat to the entire world, is up to its neck in the Middle East and is even trying to get a foothold in the West Bank," he claimed.

Iran says that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which allows its members to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, it is following a peaceful nuclear program within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and NPT regulations.

This is while the Zionist regime has so far refused to join the NPT and refused to allow any inspections whatsoever of its vast nuclear facilites by competent international agencies such as the IAEA.

Furthermore, the Zionist regime happens to be up to its neck in causing all the problems, conflicts and human sufferings in the Middle East.

Hundreds of innocent men, women and children in occupied Palestine are ruthlessly murdered every year by its indiscriminate use of the most lethal weapons ever used against a defenseless civilian population in human history. Press TV

A new style of turncoat

These days, spying for America's enemies is less about money and more about ideology.

During much of the Cold War, the typical American spy -- spy for the enemy, that is -- was a single, native-born, high-school-educated white male in his 20s, employed by a branch of the military and with top-secret security clearance.

Most of the time, he volunteered at a Soviet embassy or consulate and (at least since the early 1960s) was primarily motivated to spy by a desire for money rather than by ideological conviction. He would usually get away with it for at least a year or so before being caught, and then he would receive an average prison sentence of 20 years to life.

Among the spies of that period was John Walker. His capture in 1985 touched off what later became known as the "year of the spy" because of the 11 espionage arrests that year. A Navy radioman, Walker began spying in the late 1960sand passed on to the KGB top-secret key cards that enabled the Soviets to decrypt much of the Navy's most highly classified communications. In return, he received, by some estimates, more than $1 million over his 17 years as an active spy. He was eventually sentenced to life in prison.

Today's spies, it turns out, are different. The spies of the 1990s and the 21st century are more politically motivated and they have turned the Internet, the newest tool in espionage tradecraft, to their advantage. And they have "grayed." More

These are among the conclusions of a new study, released in March, by the Pentagon's little-known Defense Personnel Security Research Center, which examined the changing nature of espionage from 1947 to 2007. According to the study, which compared 173 espionage cases after separating them into three groups based on when they started spying, the profile of today's spy is far more nuanced and harder to stereotype. Still overwhelmingly male, he is more likely to be nonwhite and married, in his 40s with college and graduate degrees, and also with business, friends or relatives overseas.

History Will Not Absolve Us

According to an explosive ABC News report on April 9, dozens of top-secret meetings took place in the White House, beginning in 2002, in which the president’s top advisors approved the use of torture.

Those involved were members of the National Security Council’s “Principals Committee” — Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, George Tenet, and John Ashcroft. Unfortunately, however, these dramatic revelations have been largely ignored by the media and the public.

Yet we now know more clearly than ever before that it is because of these senior officials — and not just Animal House on the night shift — that America is regarded around the world as a Torture Nation.

The techniques that the advisors not only approved, but reportedly even choreographed in particular cases amount to torture by any reasonable standard. Near drowning (waterboarding), sleep deprivation, subjection to temperatures of extreme cold (hypothermia), physical assault and stress positions are proscribed by international and domestic law. They are gulag tactics that have no place in a democratic society. John Ashcroft rightly asked at one point: “Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.” But according to the report, Condoleezza Rice prevailed, telling the CIA: “This is your baby. Go do it.”

Nor does it seem that the president was insulated from these decisions. As the head of the National Security Council, he signed a decision memo in which torture was effectively authorized (February 7, 2002). He has also admitted that the new report is accurate: “And, yes,” he told ABC News, “I’m aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.” Commenting on these developments, George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley stated bluntly: “This was a torture program . . . and it goes right to the President’s desk.” He added: “I don’t think there’s any doubt that [the president] was aware of this. The only doubt is simply whether anybody cares enough to do something about it.” More

Obama says will back Petraeus for new military job

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, who has called for withdrawing U.S. combat troops from Iraq, said Sunday he will vote to confirm the top commander there for a new job as head of the military's Central Command.

President Bush has nominated Gen. David Petraeus, who led the buildup of troops in Iraq, to be in charge of operations across the Middle East and Central Asia.

If confirmed by the Senate, Petraeus will still be in that job when the next president replaces Bush at the White House in January 2009. Obama hopes that person is him.

"Yes," Obama told "Fox News Sunday" when asked if, as a senator from Illinois, he would approve Petraeus. "I think Petraeus has done a good tactical job in Iraq."

Obama has said he would start pulling out more troops as soon as he became president.

"My hope is that Petraeus would reflect that wider view of our strategic interest," he said on "Fox News Sunday."

"I will listen to General Petraeus given the experience that he has accumulated over the last several years," Obama said. "It would be stupid of me to ignore what he has to say."

"It would be my job as commander in chief to set the mission, to make the strategic decisions in light of the problems that we're having in Afghanistan, in light of the problems that we are having in Pakistan, the fact that al Qaeda is strengthening," Obama said.

TV military 'analysts' are part of what Ike warned against

A New York Times report shines a light on how the military-industrial complex tries to shape broadcast news.

The faces dominating the front page of The New York Times last Sunday were male, strong-jawed and familiar. Indeed, that was the point.

They were the faces of nine retired military officers (there were more inside the paper) who appear regularly on network and cable television news to give viewers informed, independent assessments of the war in Iraq.

At least that was the idea.

What viewers have been getting, the Times revealed, is something quite different. The paper reported convincingly that some retired officers appearing as "military analysts" have been pushing Pentagon propaganda in return for continued access to top officials and financial benefit for themselves.

According to the Times report, "Analysts have been wooed in hundreds of private briefings with senior military leaders, including officials with significant influence over contracting and budget matters. They have been taken on tours of Iraq and given access to classified intelligence. They have been briefed by officials from the White House, State Department and Justice Department.

"In turn, members of this group have echoed administration talking points, sometimes even when they suspected the information was false or inflated," the report said. "Some analysts acknowledge they suppressed doubts because they feared jeopardizing their access. A few expressed regret for participating in what they regarded as an effort to dupe the American public." More

Nazi Ties to the European Union (EU/EEC)

Nazi Ties to the European Union by WW2 Codebreaker Harry Beckhough.

Harry Beckhough witness to Hitlers rise to power. Born in Bristol 1914, Honors Graduate at Bristol University, specialized in German at Freiburg University. Served in India, and worked as a codebreaker in WW2.

Authored: 'Germany's Four Reichs', 'Secret Communications' (codebreaking in WW2), and 'In the Beginning' (who wrote the first five books in the Bible).

Mr Beckhough is a witness to burning books by the Brownshirts and Hitlers speeches were signals of signs of trouble. Witnessed Smashing of windows of shops in the Crystal night in Freibourg. Met Conrad Adenauer.

Syrian envoy says CIA fabricated evidence

Syria's ambassador to the United States said Friday that the CIA fabricated pictures allegedly taken inside a secret Syrian nuclear reactor and predicted that in the coming weeks the U.S. story about the site would "implode from within."

"The photos presented to me yesterday were ludicrous, laughable," Ambassador Imad Moustapha told reporters at his Washington residence.

However, he refused to say what the building in the remote eastern desert of Syria was used for before Israeli jets bombed it in September 2007.

Senior U.S. intelligence officials said Thursday they believe it was a secret nuclear reactor meant to produce plutonium, which can be used to make high-yield nuclear weapons. They alleged that North Korea aided in the design, construction and outfitting of the building. AP

Syria bulldozed the building's ruins a month after it was bombed and constructed a new, larger building in its place, leaving little or no evidence of what had been on the site.

Moustapha would not explain the purpose of the new building. But he said the lack of military checkpoints, air defenses or barbed wire fences around either building should show that it was not a sensitive facility.

Kim Jong-il builds ‘Thunderbirds’ runway for war in North Korea

North Korean military engineers are completing an underground runway beneath a mountain that can protect fighter aircraft from attack until they take off at high speed through the mouth of a tunnel.

The 6,000ft runway is a few minutes’ flying time from the tense front line where the Korean People’s Army faces soldiers from the United States and South Korea.

The project was identified by an air force defector from North Korea and captured on a satellite image by Google Earth, according to reports in the South Korean press last week.

It is one of three underground fighter bases among an elaborate subterranean military infrastructure built to withstand a “shock and awe” assault in the first moments of a war, the defector said.

The runway, reminiscent of the Thunderbirds television series, highlights the strange and secretive nature of the regime that provided the expertise for a partially built nuclear reactor in Syria, film of which was released by the CIA last week.

The reactor was destroyed by Israeli aircraft last September in an operation that may have killed or injured North Koreans at the site in the remote deserts of eastern Syria. Full article

Waterboarding is torture - I did it myself, says US advisor

When the US military trains soldiers to resist interrogation, it uses a torture technique from the Middle Ages, known as "waterboarding". Its use on terror suspects in secret US prisons around the world has come to symbolise the Bush administration's no-nonsense enthusiasm for the harshest questioning techniques.

Although waterboarding has been considered torture for over a century and the US military is banned from using it, controversy over its continuing use by the CIA may be about to derail the appointment of President Bush's candidate for US Attorney-General.

Michael Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York and a veteran of several al-Qa'ida trials, was questioned by a Senate committee on Tuesday and refused to say whether waterboarding was illegal.

Instead, he called the technique "repugnant to me" and promised to investigate further if he was confirmed in the job. He explained that he could not say yet whether the practice was illegal because he had not been briefed on the secret methods of US interrogators and he did not want to put the CIA officers who used it in "personal legal jeopardy".

Even though Congress banned waterboarding in the US military in 2005, it did not do so for the CIA. As a result, Mr Mukasey told senators, it was uncertain whether this technique or other harsh methods constituted "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment. His answers did not satisfy the Democrats, however, and his approval now hinges on whether he is willing to say the torture method is against US law.

In a further embarrassment for Mr Bush yesterday, Malcolm Nance, an advisor on terrorism to the US departments of Homeland Security, Special Operations and Intelligence, publicly denounced the practice. He revealed that waterboarding is used in training at the US Navy's Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School in San Diego, and claimed to have witnessed and supervised "hundreds" of waterboarding exercises. Although these last only a few minutes and take place under medical supervision, he concluded that "waterboarding is a torture technique – period". Independent

Espionage Experts Say Israel Is a Major Collector of U.S. Intel

The arrest of a New Jersey engineer on charges of conspiracy to pass U.S. military secrets to Israel Tuesday shows a consistent, continued pattern of Israeli spying on its major benefactor, the United States, according to espionage experts.

"The Israelis have always been active intelligence collectors in the U.S. It's just a matter of time in terms of when we have sufficient evidence to bring one of the cases," said John Martin, retired senior U.S. Department of Justice executive who oversaw the investigation and prosecution of espionage cases in the U.S. for more than 30 years, including that of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. Pollard is currently serving his 23rd year of a life sentence in federal prison in North Carolina for passing highly classified information to Israel.

"[The Israelis] got caught again, and they'll get caught again after this," said Martin, referring to Tuesday's indictment by the U.S. government of Ben-Ami Kadish, a former U.S. military engineer who allegedly helped give restricted nuclear weapons data, classified jet fighter weapons system data and key information on the Patriot missile system to Israel between 1979 and 1985. abcnews

The War on Terror Feeding Frenzy

Nearly seven years after Sept. 11, 2001, what accounts for the vast discrepancy between the terrorist threat facing America and the scale of our response?

Why, absent any evidence of a serious domestic terror threat, is the War on Terror so enormous, so all-encompassing, and still expanding?

The fundamental answer is that al Qaeda’s most important accomplishment was not to hijack our planes, but to hijack our political system. For a multitude of politicians, interest groups, professional associations, corporations, media organizations, universities, local and state governments and federal agency officials, the War on Terror is now a major profit center, a funding bonanza, and a set of slogans and sound bites to be inserted into budget, project, grant and contract proposals. For the country as a whole, however, it has become a maelstrom of waste and worry that distracts us from more serious problems.

Consider the congressional response.

In mid-2003, the Department of Homeland Security compiled a list of 160 potential terrorist targets, triggering intense efforts by representatives, senators and their constituents to find potential targets in their districts that might require protection and therefore be eligible for federal funding. The result? Widened definitions and blurrier categories of potential targets and mushrooming increases in the infrastructure and assets deemed worthy of protection. By late 2003, the list had increased more than tenfold to 1,849; by 2004 it had grown to 28,364; by 2005 it mushroomed to 77,069; and by 2006 it was approximately 300,000. More

US warns Iran of retaliation over Iraq action

America's top military officer has ratcheted up the pressure on Iran by issuing an unusual public warning that the Pentagon is planning for “potential military courses of action”.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, blamed the Iranian government and Quds force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard for its “increasingly lethal and malign influence” in Iraq. He said conflict with Iran would be “extremely stressing” for America’s overstretched forces, but added: “It would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability.”

Mullen said he was increasingly concerned about Iran’s growing involvement in supplying munitions and training to rebel Shi’ite militias and “killing American and coalition soldiers in Iraq”.

Speaking at a Pentagon news conference late on Friday, he said recent operations in the southern port city of Basra had revealed “just how much and how far Iran is reaching into Iraq to foment instability”. A Pentagon source said the admiral’s frankness was “extremely significant” and could pave the way for some form of attack on Iran. However, Mullen said: “The solution right now still lies in using other levers of national power, including diplomatic, financial and international pressure.”

Mullen’s tough rhetoric came shortly after General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq responsible for the troop surge, briefed Congress about the “nefarious activities” of the Quds force in stirring violence in Iraq. There were a total of 923 civilian deaths in Iraq last month, the highest number since August 2007. The Sunday Times

'Blackwater covering up Iraq massacre'

US private security firm Blackwater faces charges of destroying evidence related to their cold-blooded murder of 17 Iraqi civilians.

Lawyers representing the Iraqi victims have reportedly pressed charges on the private contractor, saying it has shredded documents related to federal investigations into shootings which involved Blackwater security guards.

Personnel from private security firm Blackwater USA opened fire on 17 Iraqis in an unprovoked shooting spree in Baghdad's Nisoor Square in September.

Following the shooting, the Iraqi government urged the US to halt all contracts with the firm and hand over the security agents involved in the incident for prosecution in Iraq.

Washington attempted to brush aside the demands but was later forced to order an investigation into the killings. PressTV

US pedophile puppet escapes death

Taliban daring attack during military parade charade has broken out a ceremony marking the defeat of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, forcing pedophile Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's US appointed president, to take cover.

Hundreds of people, including government ministers, dignitaries and the military fled the celebration in chaos as shots rang out near the presidential palace on Sunday. It was unclear where the firing was coming from. A live TV broadcast of the event in Kabul was quickly cut.

Gun fire could be still heard after television stopped coverage of the event. Taliban claimed responsibility for attack.

beltway bandit time

Media's refusal to address the NYT's "military analyst" story continues.

I was hoping to write about the fallout from the NYT's Saturday story regarding the media's use of Pentagon-controlled "independent" military analysts, but there hasn't really been any fallout at all. Despite being accused by the NYT in a very lengthy, well-documented expose of misleadingly feeding government propaganda to their viewers and readers, virtually all media outlets continue their steadfast refusal to address or even acknowledge the story. How can "news" organizations refuse to address -- just completely ignore -- accusations which fundamentally indict their behavior as "journalists"?

As I noted on Sunday, the most striking part of the roughly-7000-word article was that several of the most guilty news outlets -- CBS, NBC and Fox -- just outright refused to answer the NYT's questions about their use of military analysts, what they knew about their analysts' dealings with the Pentagon and the defense industry, and what procedures they use (then and now) to ensure that they don't broadcast government propaganda disguised as independent analysis. Identically, other news organizations not explicitly mentioned by the NYT article but which used some of the tainted sources (such as The Washington Post) have similarly failed to address their role in disseminating this Pentagon-controlled propaganda. More

Interview with Aaron Brown on NYT "military analyst" story

Yesterday, Democracy Now broadcast an excellent report on what ought to be (but isn't) the ongoing scandal revealed by the NYT concerning the establishment media's use of "military analysts" in the run-up to the Iraq war and after. The whole segment is worth watching or reading (transcript and video are here) -- retired Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner, for instance, opined that "when you put together the campaign that [Pentagon Communications official] Torie Clarke did with these three elements, you're very close to a violation of the law" which prohibits the use of military propaganda -- but I want to highlight one vital fact conclusively demonstrated by this segment.

The severe problems created by using retired U.S. Generals as military analysts to comment on American wars have long been brought to the attention of the establishment media -- long before Sunday's NYT story. Democracy Now's Amy Goodman had a rather contentious interview all the way back in 1999 with then-CNN anchor and vice-president Frank Sesno regarding the use of these retired Generals to comment (in an almost uniformly pro-Government/pro-war manner) on the Clinton administration's bombing campaign in Serbia (that interview transcript is included in the above link). Even back then, Goodman repeatedly asked CNN's executive why anti-war voices were excluded almost entirely from CNN's coverage of that war and whether CNN was concerned about the obvious conflicts and propaganda risks in "putting retired military generals on the payroll as military analysts." More

Masonic Influence in the EU

A quote from a communiqué of the French Federation of Le Droit Humain, one of France’s major anti-Christian [“liberal and adogmatic”] Masonic lodges, 11 April 2008 [English translation here]

The French Federation of Le Droit Humain represented by its president, Michel Payen, met on April 8, 2008 with the president of the European Commission, José-Manuel Barroso, [...] This meeting constitutes a major event regarding the place of Freemasonry in the construction of Europe; this place was underscored not only by the interest and attentiveness that President Barroso showed to the delegation and the time he accorded them, but also by the commitments he made to the values espoused by liberal and adogmatic Freemasonry, its positions and its opinions on subjects of concern. It was the first time that Freemasonry, as such, was able to express itself to such a high level European institution.

The delegation received assurances from President Barroso of his attachment to the spirit of "laïcité" and to the principle of separation of religion from the State. The delegation stressed the importance of the Enlightenment in the history of Europe, a dimension to be taken into account at least equally with its religious roots, and certainly more closely tied to the roots of antiquity.

Finally, a principle of communication between the liberal and adogmatic Masonic Orders and the services of the European Commission, to be used whenever needed, was decided upon. Thus the French Federation of Le Droit Humain will propose, in the near future, a recommendation concerning the principle of emancipation that ought to form the basis of all European education systems, in direct relation to a recognition of the contribution of the Enlightenment to the common culture of the peoples that compose Europe, and in accordance with the principles of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Brussels Journal

All the president's liars

Fun new game! Which TV news "military expert" is really a whore for the Bush administration? (Hint: all of them)

Did it work? Were you duped?

Were you calmly and methodically and rather nefariously led to believe that maybe, just maybe, the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan and Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and the rest, right along with tales of soldier suicides and torture and staggering civilian body counts and the utterly disastrous Bush military policy weren't really all that bad after all?

Did you watch any CNN or Fox News or MSNBC, lo, these past five or six years, listen to the pundits and ponder the wise, informed comments of all the military experts the networks brought on to discuss Iraq policy, then conclude that maybe this war, this appalling invasion might actually be positive, that maybe the surge is working and torture ain't all that bad and the democracy is taking root and America is proud and perky and victorious once again?

Did you believe any of it? Because oh my God, they sure as hell worked us over like a rabid dog works a hunk of gristle.

Who are "they," exactly? Why, they're the newly discovered and rather unexpected fraternity of expert BS artists, a highly specialized group known to gullible Americans as stoic, stern-faced retired generals, colonels, majors, military advisers, former Pentagon officials, the ones you've heard and seen on TV news for years, but who are known to the Bush administration as a delightfully dishonest gaggle of preferred liars, lackeys, shills, puppets and mouthpieces for Dick Cheney and Donny Rumsfeld and Dubya himself.

The truth is as sad as it is revolting: You have been lied to, again and again, perhaps even more than you imagined, in a rather unexpected way, perhaps like no other time in American history, in a more carefully orchestrated and widespread effort than any presidential administration has managed to attempt in the past. SFGate

IRGC watchfully protects Iran waters

The IRGC Navy is fully prepared to carry out its duty in guarding Iran's waters in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman, an IRGC official says.

The remarks were made after US officials alleged that a US vessel had opened fire on Iranian patrol boats.

"If UK or US vessels had fired at Iranian boats, based on previous experiences, they would have faced the harshest reaction by Iranian forces," a senior IRGC (Islamic Revolution Guards Corps) official told Press TV Friday.

An IRGC official had earlier rejected the reports that an American ship had opened fire on Iranian patrol boats in the Persian Gulf.

There has been no confrontation between Iranian boats and US military vessels in the Persian Gulf, he told Press TV.

Citing an unnamed Pentagon official, Reuters had earlier reported that a vessel contracted by the US Military Sealift Command had opened fired on 'Iranian boats'.

Later US Navy Fifth Fleet spokeswoman Cmdr. Lydia Robertson announced that the US ship, the Western Venture, was in Persian Gulf's international waters when it was approached by two small boats of 'unknown origin'.

The Western Venture was queried a few minutes later by the Iranian Coast Guard to determine its identity, Robertson claimed.

US defense officials told Reuters that they suspected the boats were Iranian.

"We don't have complete confirmation of that but we suspect it," one official said.

In January, the US Navy claimed that Iranian boats 'harassed US warships' in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, however, said the incident was a routine identification check.

The White House had to withdraw its allegations after Iran's IRGC released the footage of the incident showing Iranian boats asking the US warships to confirm their identification. Press TV

Pentagon Suspends Briefings for Analysts

The Pentagon announced on Friday that it was suspending its briefings for retired military officers who often appear as military analysts on television and radio programs.

A spokesman for the Pentagon said the briefings and all other interactions with the military analysts had been suspended indefinitely pending an internal review.

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that since 2002 the Pentagon has cultivated several dozen military analysts in a campaign to generate favorable coverage of the administration’s wartime performance. The retired officers have made tens of thousands of appearances for television and radio networks, holding forth on Iraq, Afghanistan, detainee issues and terrorism in general.

Records and interviews show that the Bush administration worked to transform the analysts into an instrument intended to shape coverage from inside the major networks.

The analysts, many with undisclosed ties to military contractors, have been wooed in hundreds of private briefings with senior government officials, given access to classified information and taken on Pentagon-sponsored trips to Iraq and Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, The Times reported.

US-contracted ship fires on Iranian boat: report

US military personnel aboard a cargo ship traveling into the Persian Gulf fired nearly a dozen warning shots at Iranian speed-boats Thursday, according to several breaking news reports.

Reports of the incident prompted a nearly immediate spike in oil prices, which jumped $3 per barrel.

The ship was contracted by the U.S Military Sealift Command, which delivers supplies to US troops overseas. The showdown involved a cargo ship known as Westward Venture and several Iranian speedboats, reported MSNBC's Jim Miklaszewski.

"Since it is chartered by the US military it then essentially becomes a US military vessel, with the necessary armaments on board to protect the cargo and the crew on board," he reported.

The cargo ship apparently was sailing into the Strait of Hormuz, site of a showdown between US Navy warships and Iranian speedboats in January. Raw Story

Former CIA Official Exposes Bush Administration Fraud

Flynt Leverett worked as a senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council, the NSC, and he was a CIA analyst.
http://representativepress.blogspot.c...

The Bush Administration has committed fraud before. See background information on the fraud committed by the Bush Administration to get us into the Iraq War:

The Problem Was Not "Faulty Intelligence," the Problem Was Dishonestly Selecting And Omitting Intelligence
http://representativepress.blogspot.c...

Senate Hearing on Iraq Pre-War Intelligence
http://representativepress.blogspot.c...

US Intelligence About Iraq Didn't Really Fail, It Was Manipulated
http://representativepress.blogspot.c...

Beyond all reasonable doubt, the Bush Administration is guilty of the high crime of lying our nation into war.
http://representativepress.blogspot.c...

Read Dealing with Tehran by Flynt Leverett here: http://www.newamerica.net/publication...

The Golem: The Story of Israel's Nuclear Arsenal

How Israel -- the racist state that has the bomb -- pushed the U.S. into the senseless war in Iraq and now demands the United Stat How Israel -- the racist state that has the bomb -- pushed the U.S. into the senseless war in Iraq and now demands the United States wage an insane war against Iran! You'll find the whole incredible story in The GOLEM -- exclusively from www.americanfreepress.net

Joint Chiefs chair: US prepping military options against Iran

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the Pentagon is planning "potential" military actions against Iran, reports The Washington Post.

Mullen criticized Iran's "'increasingly lethal and malign influence' in Iraq," writes Ann Scott Tyson for the Post.

Addressing concerns about the US military's capability of dealing with yet another conflict at a time when forces are purportedly stretched thin, Mullen said war with Iran "would be 'extremely stressing' but not impossible for U.S. forces, pointing specifically to reserve capabilities in the Navy and Air Force," Tyson notes.

"It would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," she quotes the U.S.'s top military leader at a Pentagon news conference.

Mullen's assertion comes a day after American forces reportedly fired warning shots at Iranian speedboats in the Persian Gulf, a confrontation that Iran denies took place.

A prior incident involving U.S. forces in the Strait of Hormuz and Iranian speedboats in January of this year--which Republican White House candidates used (with the notable exception of Ron Paul) as a saber-rattling opportunity during a nationally-televised debate--was later discredited as a virtual fabrication.

Excerpts from the Post article, available in full here, follow... Raw Story

Cheney camp 'behind Syrian reactor claim'

US Government allegations that North Korea helped Syria build a nuclear reactor have been greeted with scepticism because of their timing.

Israeli jets bombed the alleged site in Syria's eastern desert last September.

Today, after months of whispers, the White House publicly claimed that the target of the strike was a nuclear reactor.

It said the reactor was being built with North Korean help and was not intended for peaceful purposes.

US intelligence officials said the reactor had been close to becoming operational when it was destroyed.

But Mike Chinoy, from the Pacific Council on International Policy, says the claim needs to be taken in its political context, as North Korea's denuclearisation reaches a critical stage.

"Everything I'm hearing from my own sources in Washington is that what you have now is a kind of push back by Vice-President [Dick] Cheney and his office and other hardliners who are opposed to diplomatic dealings with North Korea," he said.

"[They are] hoping that by making public these allegations of nuclear cooperation it will torpedo the diplomatic process."

Earlier White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the US would be continuing its six-country talks with North Korea. ABC NEWS

Fun With The NSA

A new fun game for everyone! Mad-libs can now be NSA keyword Mad libs! Try it and see! Fun with any electronic traffic

SA: Private Property Rights to End in July 2008 in South Africa

[This is probably one of the most serious, if not the most serious issue of all. In the transition from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe PROPERTY RIGHTS was the biggest fight of all. In South Africa it was also a HUGE ISSUE. Now, finally, we have SHEER COMMUNISM.

This does not mean the ANC will take your house. They have slipped this in the back door for FUTURE USE. One day, this will give them the same powers as Mugabe to come and seize your house. Spread this around. This, folks, is 100% Bolshevik communism - gunning for the landowners.

The original is in Afrikaans and I did check it. But, if someone can please translate that and post it in the comments section I'd be most grateful. See the link. Jan]

SA: Private Property Rights to End in July 2008 in South Africa
Date Posted: Wednesday 16-Apr-2008

March 30 2008.

Rapport newspaper writes today that from July 2008, all SA private property can be expropriated (verb (of the state) take (property) from its owner for public use or benefit) by ANC-regime after July 2008, when the new Expropriations Act goes into effect.

Any private property - not only land used for agriculture -- can be appropriated by the South African state's ministry of public works. Effectively, this marks the end of capitalist-style private property rights in South Africa. And all private-property owners will just have to accept any price offered to them by the government under this new law unless they are willing to engage in expensive law-suits to get the market-related price for their properties.

Effectively, this new law thus ends all private-ownership rights in South Africa. It includes ALL properties countrywide: if the ministry of internal affairs wants land for housing 'previously disadvantaged residents, they can and undoubtedly will expropriate land owned by churches, banks, individual home-owners or commercial businesses.

Already the country has no agricultural land left in the legal sense since all agricultural land now falls under the jurisdiction of municipal boundaries countrywide. In 1994 when SA still exported agricultural products on a massive scale, it had 85,000 farmers using less than 7% of the total land surface. At the moment, less than 10,000 commercial farmers remain, raising crops on less than 0.75% of the total land surface. The country is now facing serious food shortages for the first time in its entire recorded agricultural history since the mid-1600's.

Afrikaans newspaper report about new Expropriations Act see the link below:
Source URL: http://www.news24.com/Rapport/Nuus/0,,752-795_2296578,00.html

Syrian 'Reactor Site' Photos Faked

Original photo of reactor site in Syria (Courtesy ISIS)

Enlarged and notated copy of original photo above, untouched except for arrows added
This image shows impossible angles for real natural shadows.

Regarding the images posted at

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=11923
80657735&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Simple logic and observation will prove considerable image tampering has taken place when taking a closer look at the images of the supposed Syrian reactor site. Like the vector analysis I did showing advanced weapon damage to burn vehicles at the WTC event, no one seems to ask the question ­ were BOTH photos faked for the reactor location showing the reactor site, before and after it was destroyed? Let's look at both of these images using shadow vectors to learn more.

The key here is to examine the shadows in the notated images. Since this appears to be a daylight image, we can assume that the Sun is the only light source. At times other than mid-day when the Sun is directly overhead, objects can only cast ONE shadow since the Sun is the only light source. Shadows must be on the opposite side of any object on the ground. For large holes in the ground, the shadow must be down in the bottom of the hole, on the side nearest the sun. We shall see that the problems with these images is that there are shadows on BOTH sides of structures and objects above the ground.

* The large yellow arrow (right image, right edge) points to a straight line shadow. This shadow does NOT match the curved contour of the edge of this plateau just above it, as other shadows appear to match their nearby objects. This alone damages the credibility of both images.

* In the image on the left, the orange arrow is pointing to the supposed building's shadow. This is in conflict with the yellow arrows, which prove that a shadow cast by the building should be on the OTHER SIDE of the building. The yellow arrows appear to show this is a raised, plateau-like area as a result of these shadows. Even if this is not a plateau area, other shadows are still in conflict with each other.

* In the image on the right, I have added a blue arrow (center of the image) pointing to what appears to be a hole in the ground near the center of where the building was. Note the shadow at the top side of the apparent hole (center blue arrow.) Now look at the yellow arrows which seem to disagree with the shadow direction of this hole. At the top of the image, blue arrows indicate the shadows which should be on the opposite side. It's not necessary to know which shadows are right. Since these shadows conflict with each other, neither can logically be considered correct since there is no real point of reference.

* If this is a hole in the ground (center blue arrow, right) the shadow must appear on the side of the hole nearest the sun. If this is a raised structure above the ground, the shadow must be on the opposite side from the sun side. As this is supposed to be a site where a reactor building was destroyed, then the center blue arrow (right image) would probably be pointing to a hole in the ground. If this is true, the shadow is on the WRONG side of the hole with respect to the yellow arrows. No matter how you look at these images, the shadows are still wrong.

* Another problem which is even more obvious, is that this reactor building had no cooling tower or cooling pond. Reactors require extensive dissipation of generated heat into the surrounding environment. In the desert, this problem will be even more severe. Yet no means to cool this supposed reactor is visible. A cooling pond, lake or tower surely would have been constructed along with the building.

In short, there are numerous shadow conflicts (also visible among the yellow arrows) that tell us that BOTH of these images are FAKE. Most likely, these are photos which were quickly put together from more than one image, since the shadows are all wrong in both images.

Uncle needs to employ better graphic artists.

Ted Twietmeyer

www.data4science.net

UN censures US and Israel over Syria nuclear row

This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Friday April 25 2008. It was last updated at 15:09 on April 25 2008.

Link to this video
The White House claims the video is evidence that North Korea helped Syria build a secret nuclear reactor

The UN's nuclear chief today criticised the US for the delay in publishing what Washington claims is proof that a Syrian nuclear reactor was built with help from North Korea.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was briefed yesterday by the US under-secretary of state for arms control, shortly before the director of the CIA, Michael Hayden, briefed members of Senate and House committees on the same intelligence.

"The director general deplores the fact that this information was not provided to the agency in a timely manner, in accordance with the agency's responsibilities under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, to enable it to verify its veracity and establish the facts," ElBaradei said in a statement today.

He was critical of Israel's bombing of the site of the alleged reactor. "The director general views the unilateral use of force by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the nonproliferation regime," the statement said. Guardian

Iran dismisses reports U.S. Navy fired at Iranian boat - TV

Iran dismissed reports on Friday that a U.S. navy vessel fired at an Iranian patrol boat in the Gulf, the Islamic Republic's Press TV channel said citing an Iranian official.

The English-language satellite channel quoted an unnamed official as saying no incident had occurred between the U.S. Navy and the naval forces of the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards Corps in the Persian Gulf.

In early January patrol boats of the Iranian Islamic Revolution's Guards Corps approached U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran said the boats did so to request identification, but the Pentagon insisted that the Iranian speedboats had threatened to attack them. RIA Novosti

Current Freemasonic Enemies of America and the World

This video reveals many prominent Freemasons and exposes the truth behind the symbols that the evil religion of Freemasonry uses


Architects of Deception

Cuba Media Bares US Plot in Spain

A secret meeting among gangsters and anti-Cuban terrorists was recently held in Spain, "Granma" newspaper denounces Wednesday.

Entitled "Secret Meeting among Gangsters," the daily states that the gathering was led by Caleb McCarry, Washington coordinator to materialize the Bush Plan against the island.

McCarry, the equivalent of Paul Bremen, the former US administrator in occupied Iraq, secretly visited Madrid and met with infamous terrorists and CIA agents at the US embassy.

According to news published in the "ABC" right-wing newspaper, the aim of the gathering with people like Carlos Alberto Montaner and Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals was not to give doctrines, but to "listen to interlocutors."

The publication stresses that the event was organized by US ambassador to Spain Eduardo Aguirre, known for his close friendship with George W. Bush and his continuous interferences in internal affairs of that European country.

The US agitator arrived in Madrid camouflaged, as part of a tour of Europe, aimed at obliging the European Union (EU) to preserve a hostile position on Cuba.

His visit takes place at a time when the EU and Cuba are getting closer, and Washington sees the danger that the denominated Group of 27 eliminate sanctions applied to the island, which are currently suspended.

The EU must review in June those unfair measures imposed against Cuba, which since their implementation in 2003 have called into question the Group's independent position as to this Caribbean nation. Link