Introducing PNAC 2.0

Today in Washington D.C., neoconservatives William Kristol, Robert Kagan, and Dan Senor will officially launch their new war incubator -- The Foreign Policy Initiative -- with a half-day conference on "the path to success in Afghanistan" (never mind the fact that Kagan and Kristol declared that "the endgame seems to be in sight in Afghanistan" almost seven years ago). Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, and Kagan, Carnegie Endowment fellow and Washington Post columnist, have long histories of advocating policies that rely heavily on the United States exerting its influence throughout the world by using military force. Senor, who has stayed relatively under the radar, served as Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman in Iraq under L. Paul Bremer. But as the New Yorker's George Packer noted, Senor "slowly lost his credibility in the daily press briefings he gave...during the first year of the occupation of Baghdad." In its initial focus on the war in Afghanistan, FPI chose heavy representation of Iraq war advocates for its panelists and guest speakers. As the Wonk Room's Matt Duss recently wrote, "a far better title" for FPI's maiden voyage would be "Afghanistan: Dealing With The Huge Problems Created By Many Of The People On This Very Stage."

'PNAC=MISSION ACCOMPLISHED': Kristol and Kagan -- with support from Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Donald Rumsfeld -- co-founded the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) in the late 1990s with the mission "to shape circumstances before crises emerge, and to meet threats before they become dire." Military force was always an option, and often the preferred one. Indeed, the group led the charge to get President Clinton to sign the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998, and it served as a key lobby for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. But with neoconservatism now all but dead and its principles soundly rejected in the 2006 and 2008 elections, the face of PNAC 2.0 -- The Foreign Policy Initiative -- is less bellicose. Indeed, as Duss recently noted, "this new very innocuous sounding Foreign Policy Institute" indicates that neoconservatives "understand that they have something of an image problem," adding that it is "encouraging" that they "have some relation to reality." Yet there is no reason to believe there will be much of an ideological shift from its its predecessor, as its main founders -- especially Kristol -- are still deeply wedded to neoconservatism. Indeed, Michael Goldfarb, PNAC alum and editor of The Weekly Standard, wrote on Twitter yesterday: "PNAC=Mission Accomplished; New mission begins tomorrow morning with the launch of FPI." More

Hersh: Cheney ‘Left A Stay Behind’ In Obama’s Government, Can ‘Still Control Policy Up To A Poin

How's Obama administration different from its predecessor on Iran?

Seymour Hersh: Secret US Forces Carried Out Assassinations in a Dozen Counties, Including in Latin America

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh created a stir earlier this month when he said the Bush administration ran an “executive assassination ring” that reported directly to Vice President Dick Cheney. “Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or to the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving,” Hersh said. Seymour Hersh joins us to explain. [includes video] Democracy now

Doug Feith: 'I Was a Major Player' In Bush's Torture Policies

Doug Feith, the former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, is best known for cooking up bogus prewar Iraq intelligence linking Iraq and al-Qaeda and 9/11.

But in addition to his duties to his duties stove piping phony intelligence directly to former Vice President Dick Cheney, Feith was also a key member of a small working group of Defense Department officials who oversaw the implementation of “enhanced interrogation techniques” at Guantanamo Bay that has been widely regarded as torture.

Last weekend, Spain’s investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzon, who issued an arrest warrant for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998, ordered prosecutors to investigate Feith and five other senior Bush administration officials for sanctioning torture at the prison facility.

On Sunday, Feith responded to the charges. He told the BBC he that "the charges as related to me make no sense.”

"They criticize me for promoting a controversial position that I never advocated," Feith claimed.

But Feith’s denials ring hollow. More

Obama Actively Shielding Bush, Cheney

Countdown - Prof. Jonathan Turley - Obama adm. actively shielding Bush, Cheney

Mexican president says US ‘complicit’ in drug trade

In an exclusive interview with the BBC’s John Simpson, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has warned that corruption among American officials may be making it harder to deal with drug-trafficking between Mexico and the US.

Speaking in Mexico City before leaving for his state visit to London immediately ahead of next week’s G20 summit, Mr Calderon said violence in the border city of Juarez had fallen by 73% in the month since he sent 7,000 extra troops there.

There has been open warfare in Juarez for more than a year; last year, 5,600 people were killed in drug-related attacks in Mexico, many in Juarez.

The drop in murders there has been a big success for him, especially coming as it does immediately before he meets other world leaders in London.

But analysts in Mexico City point out that there was also a fall in the violence in Juarez last year when he sent a first detachment of troops in. It quickly rose again.

US ‘complicity’

Putin's Mafia KGB Murder Top Chechen in Dubai

Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, is facing fresh international scrutiny after a powerful Chechen warlord who fell out with the Kremlin was assassinated in Dubai.

The murder of Sulim Yamadayev could trigger renewed violence in Chechnya and will cause alarm outside Russia after a series of similar assassinations in Istanbul and Vienna.

Mr Yamadayev, the leading rival of Chechnya's Kremlin-backed president, Ramzan Kadyrov, was shot dead in the car park of a housing development in Dubai where he had been living under a false name since December.

While there were contradictory details about the killing, experts on Chechnya alleged that the sophistication and planning involved in the attack suggested the involvement of Russia's FSB intelligence service, once headed by Mr Putin. More

The Beslan Massacre

New Video Puts Spotlight Back On Putin's False Flag Terror

The Jewish Russian Mob

Israeli military says no war crimes committed

We Musn't believe our own F*****G Eyes! Israeli Investigation declares Israeli soldiers' confessions exaggerated stories of civilian casualties in Gaza

The Israeli military has concluded that no war crimes were committed during its recent offensive in the Gaza Strip, dismissing as "hearsay" the testimonies of soldiers who allegedly admitted intentionally killing Palestinian civilians.

Closing an investigation into wrongful shootings, the Israeli army declared soldiers' confessions relating to two incidents were "purposely exaggerated" and not supported by facts.

One case involved the killing of an elderly woman by a rooftop sniper, and another involved a sniper fatally shooting a mother and two children who had entered a no-go zone.

After talking to soldiers who made the claims, Israeli military investigators concluded that the two incidents never took place and that the young men who made the allegations had embellished the stories during a seminar at a military preparatory school.

The military police found that "crucial components of their descriptions were based on hearsay and not supported by specific personal knowledge", the army said in a statement. More

War Crimes are just 'rumors'

The Holocaust Legend is Bollocks

East coast sonic blast and light flash from falling Soyuz debris.

So says U.S. Naval Observatory.

The mysterious boom and flash of light seen over parts of Virginia Sunday night was not a meteor, but actually exploding space junk from the second stage of a Russian Soyuz rocket falling back to Earth, according to an official with the U.S. Naval Observatory.

"I'm pretty convinced that what these folks saw was the second stage of the Soyuz rocket that launched the crew up to the space station," said Jeff Chester of the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.

Residents of the areas around Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Va., began calling 911 last night with reports of hearing a loud boom and seeing a streak of light that lit up the sky, according to news reports.

Chester heard about the incident this morning; the Naval Observatory gets plenty of reports of such fireballs and Chester investigated whether it could be a meteor or whether there were "any potential decays of space junk that were coming up," he told SPACE.com.

He checked the listing for debris that were expected to enter the lower atmosphere from their decaying orbits around this time period and found that second stage of the Soyuz rocket that launched last Thursday was slated to hit during a window that started at 8 p.m. last night. More

Israelʹs new Premier: Israel may attack Iran soon

The 120-seat Israeli Knesset (Nazi Parliament) approved Netanyahu's coalition by a 69-45 vote.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will attack Iran should the US fail to quickly halt Tehran's nuclear program.

Setting guidelines for US president Barack Obama, Netanyahu said that "the Obama presidency has two great missions: fixing the economy, and preventing Iran from gaining nuclear weapons."

If the US fails to quickly achieve the latter, Israel would be 'forced' to attack Iran's nuclear facility itself, Netanyahu told the Atlantic magazine, shortly before his inauguration on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu said he would support Obama's decision to engage Iran, so long as negotiations brought about 'a quick end' to Iran's nuclear activities.

"How you achieve this goal is less important than achieving it," he said

Tel Aviv 'wrecked' Arab-Israeli peace

US 'looks forward' to Iran help, after 30 years

North Korea Has Two Nuclear Warheads for Missile, Kyodo Reports

North Korea has two nuclear warheads it can load on its mid-range Rodong missile, Japan’s Kyodo News reported, citing an analyst at the International Crisis Group, a non-government organization.

The warheads were built using plutonium extracted from North Korea’s Yongbyon nuclear plant, Kyodo reported, citing Daniel Pinkston, who said he got the information from a government official without divulging which country.

South Korean and U.S. intelligence officials have obtained evidence of the warheads, Pinkston told Kyodo.

North Korea said earlier this month it plans to fire a rocket carrying a satellite into orbit between April 4 and 8. South Korea and the U.S. suspect the launch is a cover for a test of a long-range ballistic missile, which would be a breach of a United Nations resolution.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Biggs in Tokyo at sbiggs3@bloomberg.net.

North Korea Threatens War Against Japan Over Missile

US warships creep into N. Korea backyard

US admits N. Korea missile likely to carry satellite

G20 summit: SAS on standby if terrorists strike

It is the scenario almost no-one wants to contemplate. In the middle of the biggest meeting of international leaders London has ever seen, combined with one of the biggest protests the city has experienced, terrorists strike.

At the front of the minds of everyone at the Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Command at Scotland Yard is the date July 7 2005 when 52 people were killed by suicide bombers in the middle of the last economic summit to be held in Britain at Gleneagles in Scotland.

The aim of the police is not just to contain protestors, they also have to make sure leaders such at Gordon Brown and Barack Obama do not become terrorist targets.

President Obama will come with a fully armoured car, outriders and a helicopter shuttle but there will also be 1,000 officials and civil servants from around the world, along with heads of states and the leaders of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. More

The following video '7/7 Ripple Effect' rips the New Labour fascists version of the 'London Bombings' events into pieces, their blatant lies exposed for all to see. It proves, once again, the British Government's long history of turning innocent people into terrorists by stealth and Deception, killing its own citizens to further their agenda of total control.

A video you can't debunk

The best researched video I've seen on the London bombings yet.

London Bombings: Proof of Inside Job

Sarkozy threatens to walk out of G20
The French president threatens to walk out of the G20 summit, should his calls for stricter global financial regulation fall on deaf ears.

"We need to get results, there's no choice," Sarkozy said during a visit to Chatelleraut in central France to sell his economic recovery plan. "The crisis is too serious for us to hold a summit for nothing," he said.

Why the End of America is Closer than You Think

It is in America, where the sheeple have been terrorized into staying inside the boundaries of their little "protest zones," that you find a fragile, unstable nation.

Through complacency and fear-mongering, most Americans have become cowards when it comes to political activism. They think emailing their Senator a few times a year is all that's required to defend freedom and preserve a nation. Marching in the streets is seen as uncivilized... or even unpatriotic! The government agrees with this, too, now labeling anyone who protests in public a "potential terrorist" and targeting them for FBI investigations. (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0%2C29..

In the mean time, while the sheeple of America are caught up in their hypnotic dreams of world domination, white-collar hoodlums in Washington D.C. and Wall Street are stealing everything!

The oft-repeated creation of $1 trillion in new money out of thin air by the Federal Reserve has made the U.S. dollar the laughing stock of the world. The leaders of the G20 nations have already decided to ditch the dollar and shift to other world reserve currencies, and China is now blatantly and publicly asking the U.S. put up some kind of collateral to back up future debt purchases, to which the U.S. says "Don't worry about the debt. We're good for it!" More

Israel planned to kill Erdogan: Report

Turkish media sources detail information implicating the Israeli Mossad in a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

An e-mail found on a personal computer belonging to one of the members of the underground Ergenekon organization exposed Mossad's role in the failed assassination efforts against Erdogan, Turkish media outlets reported on Friday.

The organization has been accused of orchestrating a coup plot against the current Turkish administration.

The indictment list tabled by the Turkish prosecution against the organization says that an Israeli journalist had sent the e-mail to a number of Ergenekon figures to inform them of Israeli readiness to assassinate the Turkish premier.

According to sources in the Turkish press, the e-mail promised support for Mr. Dugo -- whose identity has not been revealed -- against Erdogan after coordination with Mossad chief Meir Dagan. More

Dissecting the Anti-Pakistan Psyop

Another anomaly in the “war of [mistakes] terror” may have been solved. The unfolding story about the anti-Pakistan psyop revolves around Britain’s MI6 and the “Pakistani Taliban.”

What exactly were Mervyn Patterson and Michael Semple doing in Helmand? At the end of December, 2007 the European diplomats were arrested and evicted from Afghanistan for “talking to the Taliban.” News reports after the fact reveal that the two diplomats were actually agents of British MI6 secret service, sent to strike a bargain with top Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah or his younger half-brother Mansoor. The negotiations are alleged to have begun in early summer, according to the British press.

But the operation began much earlier than that, in March, when Mansoor Dadullah was released on March 19 in a prisoner exchange for Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who was being held by feared Taliban leader Mullah Dadullah.

Again, according to the British press, the whole attempt at turning Mansoor began in an operation to kill his brother. The recruiting attempt began with that prisoner exchange which freed Mansoor. He was tracked from Quetta back to Helmand where British Special Forces killed Mullah Dadullah on May12, 2007, using the latest technology (Predators) to follow his satellite phone signal. Either they supplied him the phone or they simply tailed him from Helmand to Quetta, where they managed to pick-out his the satellite phone. More

Military Escalation and Obama's "War on Terrorism"

How US Get Guilty Pleas in their "War of Terror"

Massive Chinese computer espionage network uncovered

A mystery electronic spy network apparently based in China has infiltrated hundreds of computers around the world and stolen files and documents, Canadian researchers have revealed.

The network, dubbed GhostNet, appears to target embassies, media groups, NGOs, international organisations, government foreign ministries and the offices of the Dalai Lama, leader of the Tibetan exile movement. The researchers, based at Toronto University's Munk Centre for International Studies, said their discovery had profound implications.

"This report serves as a wake-up call... these are major disruptive capabilities that the professional information security community, as well as policymakers, need to come to terms with rapidly," said researchers Ron Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski.

After 10 months of study, the researchers concluded that GhostNet had invaded 1,295 computers in 103 countries, but it appeared to be most focused on countries in south Asia and south-east Asia, as well as the Dalai Lama's offices in India, Brussels, London and New York. The network continues to infiltrate dozens of new computers each week.

Such a pattern, and the fact that the network seemed to be controlled from computers inside China, could suggest that GhostNet was set up or linked to Chinese government espionage agencies. However, the researchers were clear that they had not been able to identify who was behind the network, and said it could be run by private citizens in China or a different country altogether. A Chinese government spokesmen has denied any official involvement. More

Could a Massive "False-Flag" Cyberattack Be On The Horizon?

Articles posted this week by the mainstream media possibly indicate a pattern of doom across the Internet. In what has become a bit of a disturbing trend this week, yet another computer infiltration article was posted today on CNN.com.

According to the article, "nearly 1,300 computers in more than 100 countries have been attacked and have become part of an computer espionage network apparently based in China, security experts alleged in two reports Sunday."

The mysterious network, dubbed "Ghostnet" by researchers, has many dubious capabilities, including the ability to see everything in a network, as well as "hear the people using it", according to the article. "GhostNet is capable of taking full control of infected computers, including searching and downloading specific files, and covertly operating attached devices, including microphones and web cameras," the report says."

Since the attacks on September 11th, 2001, which many have called a "false-flag operation", meaning elements within the Federal Government carried out the attacks while blaming it on its enemies, there has yet to be a massive Internet attack which would, no doubt, cripple the global infrastructure, especially in these unstable times. But could one be in the works in order to usher in complete worldwide government control of the Internet? More

Iran missile experts in North Korea 'to help with rocket launch' ?

Missile experts from Iran are in North Korea to help Pyongyang prepare for a rocket launch, according to reports.

Amid increasing global concern over the launch, which the US and its allies consider to be illegal, Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper claimed today that a 15-strong delegation from Tehran has been in the country advising the North Koreans since the beginning of March.

The experts include senior officials from the Iranian rocket and satellite producer Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group, the newspaper said.

The Iranians brought a letter from President Ahmadinejad to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il stressing the importance of co-operating on space technology, it added.

As tensions increase ahead of the rocket launch, Japan's Air Self-Defense Force began deploying units capable of shooting down a rocket to the northern prefectures of Akita and Iwate.

Early today, units carrying Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles left a base in central Japan and will arrive at the northern prefectures on Monday, according to Japan's national broadcaster NHK.

On Friday Tokyo gave its military the green light to shoot down any incoming North Korean rockets. More

Barack Obama is not black

Flim-Flam Obama Man

The “New Democrat[ic]” President's Wall Street Loyalties Get Clearer Every Day

Many on what passes for a left in the United States have been led to believe that Barack Obama is a "Mr. Smith-goes- to-Washington" character eager and ready to struggle against entrenched corporate and financial interests. A considerable number of so-called "left liberals" make curious bedfellows with right-wing noisemakers (including dangerous reactionary nut-jobs like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Bernard Goldberg) in fantasizing that a leftist has taken up residence in the White House. But, as Harper's Magazine president John R. MacArthur notes, this "is an absurd reading of Obama," who MacArthur rightly describes as "a moderate with far too much respect for the global financial class" and as "surely the unleft, unradical, president." [1]

Look, for example, at the new administration's recently leased "financial stabilization" program. Consistent with the president's own recent description of himself as a "New [that is corporate] Democrat" [2], Obama will spend untold trillions of dollars on further taxpayer handouts to the giant Wall Street firms who spent millions on his campaign [3]. The in-fact "deeply conservative" [4] Obama is too attached to those firms and their so-called "free market" ideology to undertake the elementary bank nationalizations and public financial restructuring that are obviously required to put the nation's credit system on an at once sound and socially responsible basis. His plan to guarantee the financial, insurance, and real estate industries' toxic, hyper-inflated assets while keeping existing Wall Street management is (what liberal economist James K. Gailbraith rightly considers) a massive (and deluded) effort to "keep perpetrators afloat" [5]. The unradical liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is understandably "filled with a sense of despair" by Obama's bank rescue format, which "recycles Bush administration policy - specifically the ‘cash for trash' plan proposed, then abandoned, six months ago by then-Treasury secretary Henry Paulsen"[6]. More

How The Elite Control Politics

Spanish court considers trying former US officials

A Spanish court has agreed to consider opening a criminal case against six former Bush administration officials, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, over allegations they gave legal cover for torture at Guantanamo Bay, a lawyer in the case said Saturday.

Human rights lawyers brought the case before leading anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzon, who agreed to send it on to prosecutors to decide whether it had merit, Gonzalo Boye, one of the lawyers who brought the charges, told The Associated Press.

The ex-Bush officials are Gonzales; former undersecretary of defense for policy Douglas Feith; former Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff David Addington; Justice Department officials John Yoo and Jay S. Bybee; and Pentagon lawyer William Haynes.

"The charges as related to me make no sense," Feith said Saturday. "They criticize me for promoting a controversial position that I never advocated."

Yoo declined to comment. A message left at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco where Bybee is now a judge was not immediately returned. A message left at Chevron Corp. in San Ramon, Calif., where Haynes reportedly works as an attorney was not immediately returned. More

Judge OKs probe of torture complaint against Bush officials

A senior Spanish judge has ordered prosecutors to investigate whether key Bush aides should be charged with crimes over the Guantanamo Bay detention center, a lawyer said Sunday.

Investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzon has passed a 98-page complaint to prosecutors that accuses former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and five others of being the legal architects of system that allowed torture in violation of international law, human rights lawyer Gonzalo Boye told CNN.

Prosecutors will review the document to determine if a crime has been committed.

The prosecutor's office will make a decision within five days, said Boye, one of the report's authors. Garzon accepted the complaint under Spanish law because there were several Spaniards at Guantanamo who allegedly suffered torture.

The complaint was filed in March 2008 by Boye and the Association for the Rights of Prisoners. More

Welcome to Vietnam, Mr. President

I was wrong. I had been saying that it would be naïve to take too seriously presidential candidate Barack Obama’s rhetoric regarding the need to escalate the war in Afghanistan.

I kept thinking to myself that when he got briefed on the history of Afghanistan and the oft-proven ability of Afghan “militants” to drive out foreign invaders — from Alexander the Great, to the Persians, the Mongolians, Indians, British, Russians — he would be sure to understand why they call mountainous Afghanistan the “graveyard of empires.”

And surely he would be fully briefed on the stupidity and deceit that left 58,000 U.S. troops — not to mention 2 million to 3 million Vietnamese — dead in Vietnam.

John Kennedy became President the year Obama was born. One cannot expect toddler-to-teenager Barack to remember much about the war in Vietnam, and it was probably too early for that searing, controversial experience to have found its way into the history texts as he was growing up.

But he was certainly old enough to absorb the fecklessness and brutality of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. And his instincts at that time were good enough to see through the Bush administration’s duplicity. More

America’s third and final Vietnam.

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Russia deploys new nuclear cruise missiles

Six new atomic submarines, armed with improved nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, will join the Russian navy. The Defence Ministry said the first, the Severodvinsk, will be launched in 2011 and at least five others of the same type will be built by 2017.

The new hypersonic cruise missiles with increased range are designed to strike "aircraft carriers of the potential enemy if they pose a direct threat to Russia's security," the ministry said. It added that the missiles are also capable of hitting land targets. Russia has increasingly relied on nuclear weapons to compensate for the decline of its conventional forces. In December, the chief of the Russian general staff, General Nikolai Makarov, said Russia will keep its arsenal of tactical nuclear weapons, which he said were necessary to counter a massive Nato advantage in conventional weapons. Tactical nuclear weapons have a much shorter range compared to strategic nuclear weapons. They are intended for use within a theatre of battle. Earlier this week, the Russian navy's deputy chief of staff said the role of tactical nuclear weapons in the Russian navy may grow. Vice-Admiral Oleg Burtsev said the increasing range and precision of tactical nuclear weapons makes them an important asset.|Independant|

Russian Submarine shipbuilding - part1


Russian Submarine shipbuilding - part2

Google has us all in its web

Google’s new Street View service - which displays 360-degree photographs of streetscapes in 25 British towns - has made it a challenge getting pages proof-read in the Wired offices this week.

First, we spot the magazine’s associate editor in a skirt in a West London street (to be fair, he insists it is a kilt). Then we discover that Google’s face-blurring algorithm has bizarrely pixellated Bobby Sands’s face on a Belfast mural, presumably to protect what the software assumes is his privacy.

But Simon Davies, who runs a generally estimable campaign group called Privacy International, isn’t much amused. Street View, Mr Davies complained to the information commissioner this week, “has created numerous instances of embarrassment and distress”, and so he pledged to bring a legal test case.

Why? A 15-year-old had complained to Privacy International that Google snapped him carrying a skateboard “which his parents had expressly forbade him from using”; oh, and a married man was captured “speaking at close proximity with a female colleague”. Forget ID cards, registers of children’s DNA and government trawling of our e-mails - in Street View, we have finally identified the ultimate threat to British citizens’ liberty.

Well, no, actually. Although some of those photographed exiting sex shops or being sick in pub car parks may have prompted panicked deletions by Google’s public-relations machine, the public sphere remains essentially public. Despite the creeping incursions of French-style privacy legislation, one can still lawfully capture images from and of the British public commons - so it’s an absurdity for those sneaking a work-break cigarette, or flirting at a bus stop, to claim that somehow their rights have been breached by a passing camera. A right to absolute privacy in public? Get over it. More

Privacy complaint over Street View

Who allowed Google to put my big knickers online?

Pakistan must stop supporting Taliban, US warns

Pakistan intelligence agency elements must stop support for Taliban, al-Qaeda: US

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General David Petraeus, head of US Central Command, said that elements within the Inter-Services Intelligence agency must end their support for Islamic militants.

American commanders have rarely spoken in public about assistance which the ISI still gives to Taliban fighters for fear of damaging co-operation with Pakistan. But it is an open secret in Pakistan where many believe the agency plays a devious game by supporting both sides in the Afghanistan conflict.

The ISI helped set up the Taliban in 1990s as a way of projecting Pakistani power into its neighbour Afghanistan, and some of its operatives have been ideological supporters of jihad in the past although many of them have been purged from its ranks.

Admiral Mullen said that the ISI still had links to both guerrillas fighting Nato forces in Afghanistan and jihadists dedicated to attacking India.

In a television interview he said: "Fundamentally, the strategic approach with the ISI must change and their support ... for militants, actually on both borders, has to fundamentally shift." More

The Day After – American Agenda for Pakistan

How Zionists are Trapping Muslim Pakistan

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The Truth About The Common Purpose Group in The UK

Alex welcomes former naval officer and anti-submarine warfare expert Brian Gerrish to discuss Common Purpose, a sinister quasi-political “charity” that has infiltrated the UK power structure as part of its agenda to “re-engineer” society. Gerrish will also discuss the preparations for martial law and staged riots.

Part 1


Part 2


Main Course:

Brian Gerrish: 21st Century Neo-Fascism is here

Will U.S. financial woes lead to new world order?

Is the U.S. about to lose its status as the dominant global superpower? Will the dollar collapse? If so, what would become the new global reserve currency and what would replace U.S. hegemony in a new world order?

American troops are currently stationed in over 150 countries around the world and have been actively engaged in combat since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan in 2001. The pretext for the invasion of Afghanistan was provided by the 9/11 attacks.

A second front in the U.S. “war on terror” was opened in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq. As well these military expenditures, the U.S. has an outstanding national debt of $10.8 trillion and rising.

Although U.S. President Barack Obama has outlined a timetable for complete U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq by 2011, he has ordered an increase of 17,000 more U.S. troops in Afghanistan. With no clear end in sight to U.S. military engagement and with the U.S. national debt growing at an accelerating rate, it seems reasonable to ask whether or not the U.S. might be irreversibly overextending itself. More

G20 summit: blow for Gordon Brown as £1.4 trillion spending blueprint is leaked

Gordon Brown's preparations for this week's G20 summit in London got off to a bad start last night when a British blueprint for a £1.4 trillion worldwide spending boost was leaked.

In an embarrassing disclosure, a draft of the final communiqué to be signed off by world leaders at the end of the one-day gathering on Thursday appeared in the German magazine Der Spiegel.

There were suspicions that the leak was a deliberate act of sabotage by sources within the German government, where Chancellor Angela Merkel is adopting a more cautious approach to fiscal moves to boost the national economy than Mr Brown, who will chair the summit.

A Downing Street spokesman said the leak was an "old document with out of date figures" and that the £1.4 trillion was an estimate by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of stimulus measures already introduced by G20 countries. No new money was included, the spokesman added.

The comments, though, only served to increase speculation that Mr Brown was being forced to scale down ambitious plans because of international opposition, led by Germany and France. More

Obama to Bring More Mercenaries to Afghanistan -- Sound Familiar?

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to war we go!

As President Barack Obama begins winding down the Bush war in Iraq, he is building up his own war farther east. We're told that it will be a new, expanded, extra-special American adventure in Afghanistan, involving a vigorous surge strategy to "stabilize" this perpetually unstable land.

The initial surge will add 17,000 troops to the 36,000 already there. Then, later this year, there is to be a second troop surge of another 17,000 or so. This mass of soldiers is expected to be deployed to a series of new garrisons to be built in far-flung regions of this impoverished, rural, mostly illiterate warlord state that is ruled by hundreds of fractious, heavily armed tribal leaders. We're not told how much this escalation will cost, but it will at least double the $2 billion a month that American taxpayers are already shelling out for the Afghan war.

The extra-special part of this effort is to come from a simultaneous "civilian surge" of hundreds of U.S. economic development experts. "What we can't do," said Obama in an interview last Sunday, "is think that just a military approach in Afghanistan is going to be able to solve our problems." To win the hearts (and cooperation) of the Afghan people, this development leg of the operation will try to build infrastructure (roads, schools, etc.), create new crop alternatives to lure hardscrabble farmers out of poppy production and generally lift the country's bare-subsistence living standard.

What Obama has not mentioned is that, in addition to soldiers and civilians, there is a third surge in his plan: private military contractors. Yes, another privatized army, such as the one in Iraq. There, the Halliburtons, Blackwaters and other war profiteers ran rampant, shortchanging our troops, ripping off taxpayers, killing civilians and doing deep damage to America's good name.

Already, there are 71,000 private contractors operating in Afghanistan, and many more are preparing to deploy as Pentagon spending ramps up for Obama's war. The military is now offering new contracts to security firms to provide armed employees (aka, mercenaries) to guard U.S. bases and convoys. Despite the widespread contractor abuses in Iraq, Pentagon chief Robert Gates defends the ongoing privatization push: "The use of contractor security personnel is vital to supporting the forward-operating bases in certain parts of the country," he declared in a February letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee. More

Obama passing new law to allow searching of PC’s, Laptops, and media devices

http://www.russiatoday.com/...

Torture inquiry reveals 15 new cases

MI5 and MI6 have identified at least 15 cases of possible complicity by British officers in the torture or mistreatment of terror suspects following the case of the Guantánamo detainee Binyam Mohamed.

Inquiries have revealed British security and intelligence officers have raised concerns about the treatment of several detainees, interviewed while in US custody abroad.

Earlier this week, in the first investigation of its type, police launched a criminal inquiry into allegations made by Mr Mohamed that MI5 was aware he was being tortured in a secret prison and that British officers fed questions to the CIA.

Baroness Scotland, the Attorney General, asked Scotland Yard to investigate following a review of “highly sensitive” material surrounding the case.

But senior officials in both MI5 and MI6 have reviewed their files and fear that 15 similar cases could also lead to police investigations.

It raises the prospect of a series of criminal investigations into the security and intelligence services and will add to pressure from some quarters for a full inquiry into the allegations. (As if he didn't know) Gordon Brown has already ordered a review of procedures. More

China's hi-tech 'death van'

Where criminals are executed and then their organs are sold on black market.

Death will come soon for Jiang Yong. A corrupt local planning official with a taste for the high life, Yong solicited money from businessmen eager to expand in China's economic boom.

Showering gifts on his mistress, known as Madam Tang, the unmarried official took more than £1 million in bribes from entrepreneurs wanting permission to build skyscrapers on land which had previously been protected from development.

But Yong, a portly, bespectacled figure, was caught by the Chinese authorities during a purge on corrupt local officials last year.

He confessed and was sentenced to death. China executed 1,715 people last year, so one more death would hardly be remarkable.

Disguised: The execution vehicle looks like a normal police van

But there will be nothing ordinary about Yong's death by lethal injection. Unless he wins an appeal, he will draw his final breath strapped inside a vehicle that has been specially developed to make executions more cost-effective and efficient. More

Obama and the Bankers

A video expose of how the Jews put Barack Hussein Obama into the White House.

Part 1


Part 2

YouTube star summoned to White House?

The man who created two phenomenally successful "We The People" YouTube videos urging Americans to stand up against Congress and reclaim their republic now – or perhaps lose it forever – reportedly has been summoned to the White House by President Obama to discuss the subject matter of the short films.

Bob Basso, who posts videos under the name funbobbasso on YouTube, has created videos in which he portrays Thomas Paine, author of the "Common Sense" pamphlet that made the case for independence during the American Revolution.

Basso, whose website offers his services as a motivational speaker, uses the YouTube presentations to condemn "non-representing representatives" and warns, "Only when they feel the almighty wrath of 'We The People' marching in the streets from California to New York shouting 'We're mad as hell and we want our country back' will they get the message they work for you."

He was scheduled this week to appear on the "Jerry Doyle Show" when he told the radio host that Obama had personally invited him to meet in the White House "to discuss the disturbing nature of the videos."

We The People Stimulus Package


The Second American Revolution

"Finding Our Voices" Trailer

Visit http://www.findingourvoices... to order the film, download discussion materials, host a screening and much more!

White House Won't Rule Out Troops for Pakistan War

President Obama has just laid out his new war strategy. And he's made it clear that the fight is both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

So I asked Dennis McDonough, with the National Security Council: Does that mean U.S. ground forces in Pakistan? Or more drone attacks? "I'm not going to comment on the notions you laid out there," he answered, during a White House conference call with bloggers.

But during a separate press conference, Bruce Reidel, who recently completed a strategy review of the region for the White House, offered some hints. "Thus far, our policy sees Afghanistan and Pakistan as two countries, but one theater of operations for our diplomacy, and one challenge for our overall policy," he said. "We have very concrete proposals for increasing economic assistance to Pakistan, proposals that have already been put forward by the Congress. We're also looking at what we can do on the military side."

Michele Flournoy, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, added, "I certainly believe we are going to be increasing our intelligence focus in this [Afghan-Pakistan] theater, and as opportunities arise that may increase the pace of operations, as well." More

China reacts with fury to US military report
"The Chinese side expresses its strong dissatisfaction and has made solemn representations with the US side," spokesman Qin said in a statement posted on the foreign ministry's website.

The US Congress passed a resolution Tuesday vowing "unwavering commitment" to Taiwan's security and calling the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act a "cornerstone" of US policy.

Obama, Holder as bad as Yoo?

There was a time when the United States was the undisputed world leader when it came to upholding the rule of law. We lost that reputation under George W. Bush. And now, even under President Obama, we are being outclassed and outshone by other nations.

This morning, the Washington Post reported that the British government has launched a criminal investigation to determine whether British intelligence officers were involved in the torture of a British resident detained by the United States.

Notably, the British Attorney General initiated the investigation and called on the police to investigate "as expeditiously as possible given the seriousness and sensitivity of the issues involved." British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said, "I have always made clear that when serious allegations are made they have got to be investigated."

While the British are seeking to restore international respect for their nation by adhering to the rule of law, President Obama is "looking forward" and Attorney General Eric Holder is twiddling his thumbs. Twelve days ago, the world read leaked details from an International Committee of the Red Cross report concluding that the treatment to which detainees were subjected while under the control of the CIA "constituted torture." Was this enough to spur Holder to act? Shockingly, no.

Is this what we have become? Are we, as a nation, going to do nothing about the fact that our leaders authorized and employed torture? If President Obama and Attorney General Holder refuse to launch a criminal investigation, then they are accessories after the fact in the torture themselves. They are no better or worse than individuals like John Yoo, who bent the law to allow the torture in the first place.

Can we please get upset about this? At the very least, please take a minute to send an E-mail to the Department of Justice, asking AG Holder why he is covering up torture. Just use the following link to get started:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2165/t/1027/campaign.jsp?campaign_K...

Once you have sent your message, please forward this email widely to friends and family. In the alternative, you can use the "Tell-A-Friend" option on the AFC Web site that will appear after you have sent your message. More

A watery revolt

The event is part of a weeklong series of actions to highlight United Nations World Water Day that took place on March 22.

U.N. atom watchdog IAEA Election deadlocked

U.N. nuclear watchdog governors failed to agree on a successor to Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday after five rounds of voting, opening the field to new candidates who might bridge rich-poor divisions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency was keen to avoid a long delay installing a new chief as it confronts mounting challenges, including Iran's disputed pursuit of nuclear technology that could yield atomic bombs and a shortage of money needed to uphold its anti-proliferation mandate.

Yukiya Amano, 61, Japan's envoy to the IAEA, was the favourite but fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required in the final vote by the IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors against South Africa's Abdul Samad Minty, 69.

Voting was split largely along rich and poor nation lines. Industrialized states backed Amano, developing states Minty.

"The slate of candidates is considered to have been wiped clean," Ambassador Taous Feroukhi of Algeria, chairman of the Vienna-based governing board, told reporters. More

We Can't Make It Here Anymore - by James Mcmurtry

An excellent video that captures the sentiment of our times:

Intruder alert: Zionist 'Smart Dew' will find you

A remarkable new invention from Tel Aviv University — a network of tiny sensors as small as dewdrops called "Smart Dew" — will foil even the most determined intruder.

Scattered outdoors on rocks, fence posts and doorways, or indoors on the floor of a bank, the dewdrops are a completely new and cost-effective system for safeguarding and securing wide swathes of property.

Prof. Yoram Shapira and his Tel Aviv University Faculty of Engineering team drew upon the space-age science of motes to develop the new security tool. Dozens, hundreds and even thousands of these Smart Dew sensors - each equipped with a controller and RF transmitter/receiver - can also be wirelessly networked to detect the difference between man, animal, car and truck.

"We've created a generic system that has no scale limitations," says Prof. Shapira. This makes it especially useful for large farms or even the borders of nations where it's difficult, and sometimes impractical, to install fences or constantly patrol them. More

Japan prepares to blast North Korean missile out of the sky

The missile launch is believed to be a military test, though Pyongyang insists it is launching a satellite.

The Washington Post reports that the Japanese government has ordered two anti-missile destroyers into the Sea of Japan and is moving Patriot missiles to the coast to intercept the North Korean rocket or its debris.

The orders punctuated a week of rising tensions in Northeast Asia, as North Korea moved its rocket to a launchpad and warned the outside world not to interfere or impose sanctions for its planned launch of what it describes as a "communications satellite." The launch is scheduled for sometime between April 4 and 8.

Reuters writes that the North Korean missile is a multi-stage long-range rocket, and that while the rocket's boosters are expected to crash in the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean, "a failed launch or accident could result in one of the stages of the rocket, or bits of it, falling on Japan and endangering lives and property." Reuters adds that Japan would have only 10 minutes notice if the missile or its debris were to threaten Japanese territory.

However, the Associated Press reported earlier this week that some in the Japanese government are not convinced that its military will be able to successfully intercept the missile or its debris.

Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said "it would be difficult" to shoot down fragments from a failed launch of the North Korean missile.

Gerald Warner, blogging for The Daily Telegraph, adds that the US has dispatched two anti-missile destroyers, the USS McCain and the USS Chafee, to Japanese waters as well.

North Korea earlier this week reiterated its claim that the missile was for a peaceful satellite launch, and warned that any attempt to shoot down would be considered an act of war, reports The Korea Times.

"We will retaliate any act of intercepting our satellite for peaceful purposes with prompt counter strikes by the most powerful military means," a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People's Army was quoted as saying, specifically naming South Korea, the US, and Japan.

Agence France-Presse reports that Russia, which typically has supported the North Korean government, today recommended that North Korea refrain from the missile test.

"North Korea would be better off refraining from it," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Borodavkin told reporters in Moscow, Russian news agencies reported.

Imperialism: Russian Forces Annexe Arctic

Russia is planning to create a crack group of special military forces to help carve out and patrol the Arctic, which it claims is its territory.

The area will be controlled by Russia's shadowy secret service, the FSB - the successor organisation to the KGB.

A new document released by the Presidential Security Council lays bare Russia's aggressive military intentions for the disputed region.

The country's military elite have stated in the past how they are prepared to fight wars in the Arctic as the scramble for natural resources in the region heats up.

Russia launched an expedition to the Arctic in August 2007.

A team of scientists on board an atomic icebreaker placed a Russian tricolour on the seabed making a symbolic land grab.

The Arctic - with its untapped bounty of oil, gas and minerals - has become a new frontier in the cold war between Russia and the West.

Moscow's claim is disputed by the four other Arctic nations - the United States, Canada, Norway and Denmark.

Arguments over who controls the Arctic are becoming more confrontational.

Bilderberg Found by American Free Press

AFP on the trail of Bilderberg group: Site near Athens, Greece, is verified to be scene of 2009 globalist coven

Bilderberg will return to its 1993 crime scene when it attempts to meet secretly in Vouliagmeni, Greece, May 14-17. Bilderberg will return to the grounds of Nafsika Astir Palace hotels in Vouliagmeni, 20 miles outside Athens, and meet behind guards at the Westin Nafsika.

High on the Bilderberg agenda will be how to manipulate the global economic crisis for their selfish interests. They will pressure both European and North American nations to pull back from “protectionism” in the later meetings of heads of state. Since the international financiers and high officials of government see themselves as “citizens of the world” and scorn “nationalism,” their only loyalty is bankrolls, not their country. They love free trade, essential for world government.

Thus, they are determined that the United States and other nations refuse to impose tariffs that would equalize competition at the water’s edge. They want to continue shipping U.S. manufacturing jobs overseas where cheap labor may be exploited. They want to continue importing products made by slave labor in China and Africa, underselling domestic products. More

American Free Press editor Jim Tucker speaks about the upcoming Bilderberg meeting, which will be held in Greece in early May 2009.

US 'New Beginning' Admin seeks 'new day' in Latin America

"I am a Zionist"-US Vice President Joe Biden on Friday sought a "new day" in relations with Latin America ahead of a regional summit next month, as he arrived in Chile.

Biden's trip to meet regional leaders came as decades-long US influence is waning, as it has focused elsewhere in recent years, while Latin American countries have grown stronger and expanded relations with others, including China, Russia and India.

"As we confront the most serious economic crisis in generations ... we must work together, as partners, to give our citizens hope that brighter days lie ahead," Biden wrote in an op-ed published in 11 Latin American newspapers as he began a trip to Chile and Costa Rica.

The US vice president was due to meet bilaterally with the leaders of Uruguay, Argentina and Chile, as well as Britain, during a Progressive Governance conference in Vina del Mar on Chile's coast, before consulting with Central American presidents in Costa Rica at a gathering hosted by President Oscar Arias.

"These meetings are an important first step toward a new day in relations and building partnerships," wrote Biden.

Russia to end its Terror against Chechnya?

President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday ordered the Russian authorities to move towards ending the 'anti-terror' operation in Chechnya that has been in place for the last decade.

He ordered the national anti-terror committee to consider the future of the regime, which was put in place as Moscow was starting its second war against separatists in the Muslim Caucasus region in 1990.

"I propose that the national anti-terror committee considers the question about the anti-terror operation and takes the necessary decisions," Medvedev said in comments broadcast on state television.

He said "the situation in Chechnya has normalised to a large degree and life is getting back to normal, modern buildings are being constructed."

The decree on the start of a "counter-terrorist operation" was passed in Chechnya under late president Boris Yeltsin in 1999, just months before he resigned and installed Vladimir Putin at the helm.

Russia fought two full-scale wars with separatist forces after the collapse of the Soviet Union in Chechnya but the situation has stabilised in the last years under the strongman pro-Moscow local leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Kadyrov, who has been accused by rights groups of using heavy-handed tactics against his enemies, said earlier this week "we have completely rooted out terrorism." More