Unspeakable grief and horror
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Know them by their fruit:
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Unspeakable grief and horror
Know them by their fruit: |
Do your soul a favor, make today the last time you eat meat!
There is nothing that indicts human beings more than the way other species are treated by the species that does know better!
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Pay No Attention to That Turkey Being Slaughtered
By MARTHA ROSENBERG
Posing for photographers with her felled caribou, her child inches from its bleeding mouth, Sarah Life-Is-Precious Palin is not confused about where meat comes from.
So the turkey being slaughtered in full view of the camera as she conducted an interview at Triple D Farms in Wasilla this week probably doesn't phase her.
But most Americans don't want to see the transformations their turkey went through to get to their Thanksgiving dinner table.
How it lived, how it was shipped, who hung the struggling bird upside down on the conveyer to transport it to the awaiting blade, et cetera — are not thoughts that improve the taste of the cranberry sauce.
Nor will the economy get so bad people will have to take jobs as 'live hangers' like Sam, not his real name, last year.
"Today I saw about 50 dead turkeys on the trucks, and about 80 live birds fell onto the floor," he writes in a diary he kept while working at House of Raeford Farms in Raeford, NC, the seventh largest turkey producer in the US.
"A worker tried to throw a turkey up to the double-sided dock from its rail side.
The bird was about to hit the rail when another worker kneed the bird and then kicked it, knocking it back down to the floor.
The worker threw the turkey a second time, but it hit the underside of the dock and dropped straight down to the cement floor for its third time that day.
The bird lay in watery feces for about two hours before being picked up and hung on the line — the turkey could keep its head up and blink; it was otherwise motionless."
Mom or Grandma may put hours of care into roasting, basting, stuffing and perfecting their butter brown bird.
But care is not the operant word at the slaughter house as workers throw, swing and 'box' at the birds as they unload trucks in video Sam shot.
One worker holds a turkey to be crushed under a truck's moving tires just for the heck of it; others pull heads and legs off turkeys for fun.
Workers insert their fingers into birds' cloacae (vaginal cavities), remove eggs and throw them at each other in a depraved game.
Because turkeys are drugged and bred to grow so quickly, their legs can't support their own weight and many arrive with broken and dislocated limbs says Sam.
When you try to remove them from their crates, their legs twist completely around, offering no resistance — useless and limp.
The turkeys must be in a lot of pain but they don't cry out, observes Sam.
In fact the only sound you hear as you hang them, he says, is the "trucks being washed out to go back and get a new load."
Most people admit they don’t want to watch laws or 40 pound Thanksgiving turkey carcasses made.
Nor do they want to watch a helpless turkey unceremoniously fed into a wood chipper behind Sarah Palin's head as KTUU TV broadcast.
But will they eat the same bird when it is passed to them on a plate next to mashed potatoes on Thursday?
You betcha.
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There is nothing that indicts human beings more than the way other species are treated by the species that does know better!
Do your soul a favor, make today the last time you eat meat!
Kewe |
There is nothing that indicts human beings more than the way other species are treated by the species that does know better!
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"Rwanda's Deadliest Secret: Who Shot Down President Habyarimana's Plane?"
The most under-investigated of political assassinations |
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by Tiphaine Dickson
Global Research, November 24, 2008
Who is Rose Kabuye?
Retired Colonel Rose Kabuye was recently arrested in Germany, and extradited to France, where she was charged with for complicity in murder in relation to a terrorist enterprise her alleged participation in the 1994 shooting down of Juvénal Habyarimana’s presidential plane, and released on bail.
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She is the first member of Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s inner circle to be charged in connection to what is arguably history’s least-investigated political assassination and terrorist attack.
Colonel Rose Kabuye was born in Uganda, the child of Rwandan expatriates, many of which left the country after it obtained independence, and following a UN-sponsored referendum abolishing the (Tutsi) monarchy in Rwanda.
She attended primary school with many of the current regime’s hard-liners, and like numerous other Rwandan Tutsi exiles living in Uganda, Kabuye joined the Ugandan Army, where she held the rank of Lieutenant, and became the personal attaché of the Chief of Staff.
During the same period, Paul Kagame, who attended the U.S. Army Command and Staff College (CGSC) in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, was Chief of Military Intelligence in the Ugandan Army.
On October 1st, 1990, an armed group called the Rwandan Patriotic Front, composed of many Ugandan officers, including Rose Kabuye and Paul Kagame, invaded Rwanda from Uganda, with Ugandan military materiel, and Ugandan soldiers.
President Museveni of Uganda claimed that these 'rebels' were acting unbeknownst to him, and had 'deserted' the Ugandan army; however, there is no account that any of these officers, including Kabuye and Kagame, were ever stripped of their Ugandan military rank, or that they were they ever court-martialed and charged with desertion.
It is said that Rose Kabuye — who charmed foreign journalists by holding her baby on her knee in press conferences held after the RPF invasion of Rwanda — was imprisoned for several months by Kagame in 1993, for undisclosed reasons.
In April 1994, she was back in Kigali, Rwanda, working in an administrative capacity at the RPF headquarters.
French judge Jean-Louis Bruguière accuses her of having abetted the SAM 16 missile attack on the plane carrying Presidents Juvenal Habyarimana of Rwanda, and Cyprien Ntaryamira, of Burundi.
The indictment states that it was in her office that the members of the 'Network Commando', the RPF cell alleged to have shot down the presidential plane, waited for their orders, on April 6th, 1994.
Rose Kabuye was named 'Prefet' (or governor) of Kigali after the tragic event of 1994.
She was later designated to participate in the National Transitional Assembly by Kagame, but was later removed.
Colonel Kabuye was subsequently named Chief of Protocol of President Kagame.
She is the highest-ranking woman in the Rwandan Patriotic Army.
A Convenient Arrest
Kabuye’s arrest and extradition to France arrest comes at a curious time and is accompanied by circumstances that deserve closer scrutiny.
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It appears that, according to both French and German government sources, Rose Kabuye had been warned that if she traveled to Germany, she would be arrested pursuant to a warrant launched by French anti-terrorism judge, Jean-Louis Bruguière; a claim she now denies, expressing instead 'surprise' at her arrest.
Much has been said of Colonel Kabuye’s willingness to face justice in France so that 'the truth be known'; President Paul Kagame has ever referred to 'lancing the boil'.
It has been speculated that General Kagame has sent his Chief of Protocol — a Lieutenant herself—to attempt, first, to obtain a copy of judge Bruguière’s file, and secondly, to 'reveal the weakness' of the case against himself, and inner circle.
Indeed, Kabuye is, among those charged, the individual against whom the charges are least severe, and whose implication may seem to be less instrumental than others.
This theory is revealing to some extent, but fails to take into account what are high-level diplomatic and political attempts to paradoxically, move away from, and not towards, the truth.
The shooting down of the plane carrying Presidents Habyarimana of Rwanda and Ntaryamira of Burundi triggered the large-scale massacres that followed.
The role of this attack on the nightmare that unfolded is obvious, yet over the years, and with the exception of judge Bruguière’s investigation, efforts to elucidate this crime have been frustrated almost every step of the way.
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An investigation was requested on numerous occasions, by numerous parties; significantly, by the Security Council, almost immediately, whose reminders to the Secretary-General to investigate the circumstances of the attack were not followed; by the Rwandan Government, after the plane was shot down; by the African Union; and following the UN resolution establishing the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities adopted resolution 1994/1 entitled 'Situation in Rwanda', calling the attention of the Commission of Experts, established by the Security Council, to the need to inquire into the circumstances of the shooting down of the plane.
In 1997, as defense counsel for Georges Rutaganda before the ICTR, I argued a motion requesting the Prosecutor disclose results of investigations into the shooting down of the Presidential plane, or be directed to undertake investigations, if none had been carried out.
The Prosecutor’s representative responded:
"Our responsibility and mandate is not to investigate plane crashes.
That's not really our function.
Therefore, I would categorically answer this question by saying that, first, we don't have any such investigation.
We have not made any such investigation and we don't have any reports.
And, secondly, it is not our function, it is not our mandate, to investigate plane crashes or presidents, vice-presidents, or whoever it is.
And, therefore, this is really a matter not within our province."
We have since learned from Michael Hourigan, Australian lawyer and one of former Prosecutor Louise Arbour’s lead investigators, that investigations had in fact been carried out (and at the material period when this fact had been denied), but had been shut down by Prosecutor Arbour personally once Hourigan informed her that he had credible evidence that a 'network commando' of the RPF had shot down the plane.
The efforts to undermine this investigation over the years are significant, and the testimony of Abdul Ruzibiza, a former RPF officer who testified before the ICTR, sheds substantial light on why that may be. Ruzibiza, one of judge Bruguière’s witnesses, claims to have recanted the totality of his testimony in several telephone interviews given last week.
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Yet Ruzibiza wrote a book setting out in detail the fact that Kagame’s RPF shot down the plane with the knowledge that armed hostilities would resume in Rwanda, as he was dissatisfied with the political process undertaken after belligerent parties had signed the Arusha Peace Accords.
In other words, knowing full well that chaos would descend upon Rwanda (or with incomprehensible recklessness), Kagame’s strategy was to seize power through the force of arms, and it was guaranteed that war would resume after the assassination of the Rwandan President — and as it happened, the Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Armed Forces, as well as the President of Burundi.
Ruzibiza testified publicly at the ICTR as a defense witness.
The Prosecutor’s cross-examination covers 65 pages of transcripts, yet Ruzibiza’s version was unshaken, much less did he change his version, or recant then, when testifying under oath.
But Rose Kabuye’s arrest and transfer to France appears to have suddenly triggered Ruzibiza’s change of heart and complete recantation of his testimony.
He now claims that Bruguière’s investigation was a French political machination (which does not explain his UN testimony).
Diplomacy’s Pale Underbelly
Perhaps key in understanding what has happened is the policy adopted by France’s Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner.
In January 2008, and apparently desperate to normalize relations with Rwanda (which were suspended by Rwanda after Bruguière launched arrest warrants in 2006), he signed an op ed in Figaro, in which he wrote (my translation):
"I do not know who ordered the April 6th, 1994 attack against President Habyarimana’s plane.
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But I do not believe, as does the excellent judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, that Paul Kagame knowingly decided to spark the fire that roared over his country.
I cannot accept this simplistic and slanderous vision that would have Tutsis be responsible for what happened to them, no more than I can stand to hear certain people claim that there was a double genocide, against both Hutus and Tutsis."
Asked last week [mid-November 2008] whether Kabuye’s indictment in France would present an obstacle to the normalization of relations with Rwanda, he responded: "I believe the contrary."
One can only hope that geo-political concerns will not yet again stand in the way of learning the truth about the circumstances in which President Habyarimana’s plane was shot down by two surface to air missiles in 1994, even if the truth to be discovered, and justice to be done as a result, leads us to indict those who’ve become some of the West’s strongest allies, and who continue, it seems, to wage a path of destruction through Eastern Congo, with complete immunity.
Indeed, if the RPF shot down President Habyarimana’s plane, Kagame can no longer be deemed a heroic military genius who stopped a genocide and should be forever protected and flattered no matter how many crimes he commits.
He becomes one of the (main) reasons the massacres unfolded: he could not have failed to know that the assassination of two Hutu presidents, and the Chief of Staff of the Rwandan Armed Forces, during a volatile political transition and in the course of a fragile ceasefire (violated on several occasions by the RPF, as it happens), would unleash violence. If the RPF shot down the plane, they are co-responsible, and this substantially changes the cartoonishly uni-dimensional narrative necessary to provide Kagame with total impunity, and buttress a Western foreign policy on intervention that helped make the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia possible politically.
While Bernard Kouchner may not want to believe the results of a careful investigation carried out by France’s most celebrated anti-terrorism judge, and while Judge Bruguière’s witness, Mr. Ruzibiza, may suddenly see fit to recant a testimony given under oath before a UN institution, the fact remains that there are many other witnesses relied upon in the French investigation.
And this most under-investigated of political assassinations, one which sparked a hundred-day massacre, the latter justifying continued war and misery in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and authoritarian rule in Rwanda, must be elucidated, and not quashed yet again, for the sake of geopolitical interests that would impede discovery of truth, and delay justice beyond what can decently be tolerated.
© Copyright 2005-2008 GlobalResearch.ca
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They are not telling you the DR Congo situation is much about valuable resources, but today not even so much as mining, often easier to just mine the commodity stock exchanges if you own the mines
The present corrupt Kinshasa government — backed and supported by Rothschild of Paris greed, Edmond de Rothschild Banque Privée, Swiss Bank Rothschild having business offices in China... among other human growth and spirit devouring succulents — holds a vice-grip onto power
The greed doing little or nothing for anyone except those having control
A cross made of a banana leaf and a stick
An infant's grave |
Click here for Save the Children
Save the Children Aids Families Fleeing Congo Conflict
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Uncovering Rwanda's secrets
Nick McKenzie February 10, 2007
MICHAEL Hourigan reviewed his orders as the car pulled into Rwanda's main airport.
He had finished a memo on the intelligence gathered by his Rwandan war crimes investigation team. Check. He had saved it onto a disk placed in a secure UN diplomatic bag. Check. He had ordered his investigators to leave Rwanda. Check.
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For the Australian policeman-turned-lawyer, everything appeared to be going smoothly.
But airports are unreliable places and the bullet-scarred Kigali terminal in the African state of Rwanda was no exception.
As Hourigan prepared to board his plane, he was approached by the flight manager. "You cannot board this flight, Mr Hourigan. I am afraid it is already full."
It is early 1997. Just days before, Hourigan has used a secure phone in the US embassy to brief the head of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), Judge Louise Arbour, about his team's discovery.
They have obtained incendiary information linking the Tutsi rebel leader and now Rwandan President Paul Kagame to the incident precipitating the Rwandan genocide — the shooting down in April 1994 of a plane carrying Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana and the president of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira.
Hours after the crash, extremists from the Hutu ethnic group begin slaughtering ethnic Tutsis and moderate members of their own clan, unleashing one of the most notorious massacres of the late 20th century.
Hourigan's four-page memo summarises what three informants have told his UN investigators about Kagame's role in the attack. Until now, that memo has never been made public.
But last November, almost a decade after Hourigan writes the memo, claims that Kagame is behind the plane crash make international headlines. The claims are made by French anti-terror judge Jean-Louis Brugiere, who finds Kagame and his aides responsible for the attack.
Brugiere's findings follow years of speculation about the existence of Hourigan's memo and what happened to his original investigation.
The French case confirms the central claims in Hourigan's memo.
It raises questions about why the UN cut short Hourigan's inquiry and, once again, highlights the organisation's failure to deliver justice.
A decade later, Hourigan still feels bitterly let down by that failure to act. "To this day, there has been a decisive effort by the UN not to investigate the plane crash," he says during an interview with The Age this week.
Back in 1997 at Kigali airport, Hourigan's only focus is getting on the UN-chartered plane.
When he is told to return the next day, Hourigan's escort, a senior UN security officer, steps in.
"I have been directed by the Secretary-General to get this man on the plane.
If you treasure your job, you will make it happen."
Minutes later, Hourigan is bracing for take-off, bound for The Hague. He has no idea that within 48 hours, his investigation will be over and he will quit his job.
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Michael Hourigan never intended to work in Africa. After a decade policing in Adelaide, and a brief stint as a public prosecutor, some former colleagues ask him to join them as investigators with the International Criminal Tribunal in Yugoslavia. It has been set up to prosecute war criminals involved in the Balkans conflict. Hourigan applies but is told there are too many English speakers.
There are, however, jobs going in Rwanda.
Hourigan's knowledge of Rwanda is limited to CNN reports of the genocide and the film Gorillas in the Mist. Back then, he says he was no bleeding heart. However, Rwanda perceptibly changed Hourigan, sharpening his drive for justice and human rights. He later worked in Washington for a US Democratic congresswoman and has a photo of Bobby Kennedy as his screen saver.
Before Rwanda, Hourigan was more of a 'garden variety Liberal'. He is attracted to the ICTR because it promises complex investigations, and Hourigan loves to investigate.
He touches down in Rwanda on April 6, 1996. It is the second anniversary of the 100-day genocide in which extremist Hutus slaughter up to a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus while the international community sits on its hands. The genocide ends in mid-July when Kagame's Rwandan Patriotic Front seizes control of Kigali.
"There was great tension, a great dislike of white people and UN people.
And I arrived there as a white male in my mid-30s with a UN passport."
Hourigan recalls:
"My first day, I was just wide-eyed.
You could smell the sewage and see the suffering."
The ICTR is set up by the UN Security Council at the end of 1994 to prosecute the genocide's leaders and investigate breaches of international humanitarian law. Hourigan is appointed leader of 'The National Team'. It is made up of police from Africa, the US, Canada and Europe.
Hourigan's commander senior anti-terror FBI agent who led crime scene investigations at first World Trade Centre bombing
Hourigan's commander is Jim Lyons, a former senior anti-terror FBI agent who led crime scene investigations at the first World Trade Centre bombing.
The National Team has three core tasks: to investigate the Presidential Guard members who murdered Rwanda's intelligentsia; to investigate the political and military leaders behind the extermination programs; and to investigate the plane crash that kills the two presidents and triggers the genocide.
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The earliest and most widely held theory blames Hutu extremists for shooting down the plane, over anger at the peace talks between Hutu and Tutsi leaders in Arusha, Tanzania.
But some point the finger at Tutsi rebel leader Paul Kagame, claiming he is upset by the progress of the talks and knows the upheaval sparked by the plane crash will legitimise his invasion and begin his march to power.
Foreign powers linked
In 2000, Kagame becomes president.
Foreign powers are also linked to the downing of the presidential jet.
Rwanda's leaders have long counted on allegiances with external forces.
The governing Hutu regime is in the Franco-Belgian camp.
Kagame, whose military career includes a stint in the US, looks to his Anglo-US supporters.
After he wins power, the national language is changed from French to English.
It is in this messy geopolitical setting that Hourigan's team begin investigating.
"The ICTR had been pressured (by Rwanda and other countries) not to investigate the crash," Hourigan says.
"I thought it was a time for the UN to step up to the plate and discover the truth about a major event.
It would set a benchmark for reliability and transparency."
HOURIGAN models his team on a domestic police force.
Investigators liaise closely with prosecutors to build cases.
The crimes under scrutiny, of course, are far from ordinary.
Death is everywhere and on an unimaginable scale.
"I remember doing crime scene work on a church where there had been a slaughter.
There were still bodies there.
It struck me as so sad that so much of the killing in Rwanda happened around the churches and the schools."
The National Team is quickly met with a reluctance from key overseas and regional players to offer assistance.
Foreign intelligence services share nothing. After several months, Hourigan and his team are well versed in the rumours about the crash. What they needed is a break. It comes with a knock in the night.
"I was in Kigali. It was late one evening. One of my investigators came to me with information that he had met with a source."
A short time later, another source comes forward. And then a third.
"In the next 24 hours, they gave quite incredible information about the rocket attack.
We had received lots of information about possible causes, but this was the most detailed, accurate and timely about one target: President Kagame and his administration."
Hourigan's memo summarises the informant's claims. Two of them were serving members of Kagame's military regime. All three claim to be existing or former members of a covert attack team called 'the network'.
The memo states:
"Sources advise that the former RPF, now known as the RGF, has within it a cell of elite soldiers who are activated and deactivated from time to time to conduct special operations.
"One such operation was the successful rocket attack upon President Habyarimana in 1994.
According to the sources, this group was advised to put in place a contingency plan to eliminate President Habyarimana on or about (March 15, 1994) as the Arusha talks were not progressing to the extent hoped and anticipated.
"Their assignment consisted of setting up five deployment points, two in Kigali and three around the airport perimeter.
"The sources have all confirmed that 'the network' under the command of General Paul Kagame planned and executed the rocket attack."
Hourigan treats the information warily:
"We kept an open mind. But (we had contact) with one man who said he was one of the rocket firers. That he was responsible for firing one of the SAM missiles that brought the plane down.
"It (their information) was so detailed and named so many people that it could quickly be discarded or corroborated."
Hourigan knows he has to act fast. The UN has a poor record of protecting its informers.
"People in that part of the world with precious information have use-by dates," Hourigan, who never knew exactly why the sources came forward, says.
"Maybe they realised they had a use-by date and that they would be murdered.
They wanted help with their families and to be removed from Rwanda and protected."
Hourigan's commander, Jim Lyons, arranges a phone briefing with Arbour. The call takes place in the US embassy in Kigali on a 'secure' US embassy line.
I never thought of the US
Later, Hourigan will rue the call.
"I never realised that we may be compromising the investigation.
I didn't understand the politics of the region.
I didn't realise that Paul Kagame had been trained by the US, supported by the US.
I thought that we were keeping the call discrete from the French and the Belgians.
I never thought of the US.
It was a blunder."
But on the other end of the phone, Arbour sounds excited.
"She said it corroborated some other information she had just received. She was concerned about our safety and the security of the information."
A few days later, Hourigan flies out of Kigali airport, bound for The Hague.
He has no idea that the fate of his investigation is most likely already decided.
Arbour is one of the more prominent residents in a city that promotes itself as the 'centre of international justice and peace'. The former ICTR chief and Canadian Supreme Court judge is now the UN's Human Rights Commissioner. The role demands a public presence.
But Hourigan says he is still waiting for her to publicly explain why she told him to shut down the plane crash investigation in early 1997 after he handed her his memo.
Arbour's version of these events is not known, despite efforts by this newspaper to secure them. Her spokesman did not return questions emailed by The Age.
Hourigan offers his version of the events with fearsome clarity:
"She was aggressive and negative. She had done a 180-degree turn. She effectively told me that my inquiry was at an end."
Hourigan says Arbour claims his team exceeded its jurisdiction, a point he still disputes. He insists the crash is well within the ICTR's mandate.
"I was speechless. I thought about all I had seen and done in the tribunal and learning about the UN's complicity in the genocide. I couldn't believe that we as a tribunal were being compromised as well.
It gutted me. I had put a year and a half of my life into this and my team had risked their lives and our informers had risked their lives to tell this story.
And it was going to be swept under a rug.
I couldn't believe it."
In the city of justice and peace, Hourigan decides to quit the ICTR.
After a further six-month secondment with the UN's oversight office in New York — where he creates a second memo outlining his frustrations with the UN in Rwanda — he resigns. He has never found out what happened to his team's three informants.
YET, in the ways of these tangled stories, all is not lost.
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In France, a revolver-toting anti-terror judge who earned his reputation prosecuting terrorist Carlos the Jackal also has an interest in the events of April 6, 1994, as the shot-down plane's air crew are French nationals.
UN's refusal to hand documents over to France
Hourigan has never heard of Brugiere. The judge is similarly unaware of Hourigan until March 2000, when a Canadian newspaper reveals details of Hourigan's struggle. According to a senior French source, the fact that the UN kept secret Hourigan's documents "fuelled our interest". So, too, does the UN's refusal to hand the documents over to the French.
Hourigan has no such qualms. After a call from Paris he, once again, boards an international flight.
At Charles de Gaulle Airport, four men in black suits and dark glasses drive Hourigan to Brugiere's chambers, where he tells his story.
It will take until late November last year for Brugiere to issue indictments for several of Kagame's aides. The judge's brief includes testimony from several former military figures, linking Kagame to the attack.
Kagame has dismissed Brugiere's investigation, claiming it is driven by France's anger at losing its influence in Rwanda. "It is a political process," he tells the BBC.
Hourigan understands the wariness about France's agenda. "But I welcome what the French have done for nothing else but that it is done."
Kagame's aides can only be arrested if they enter a country with which France has an extradition treaty.
Kagame is protected from state prosecution because of his head-of-state status. Only the ICTR has the power to hold him to account.
Despite several major prosecutions, Hourigan views the tribunal as a failure. Many suspects have not been held to account. Rwanda remains a deeply divided country.
"If there was a political will internationally, Kagame could be prosecuted," he says.
"That is what is missing. It is not the lack of evidence or witnesses or ability to uncover the story."
Click here to download Michael Hourigan's affidavit and internal memorandums
Subtitles inserted by TheWE.biz
Copyright © 2007. The Age Company Ltd. |
Living among the dead Why the US, the Clinton's and the rest of the world chose to prevent the UN from stopping the killing |
Blatant BBC Orwellian piece for your pleasure — BBC reporting is usually more subtle propaganda |
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Tuesday, 25 November 2008
US Vatican abuse case to go ahead
A US federal appeals court has ruled that a lawsuit against the Vatican over claims it covered up decades of child sex abuse by priests can go ahead. |
The case was filed by three men from Kentucky who say they were abused by clergy in their childhood.
It centres on a 1962 directive from the Vatican — made public in 2003 — which told church officials not to disclose sex abuse complaints against priests.
The US Roman Catholic Church has been plagued by a string of abuse scandals.
On a visit to the US earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI criticised US bishops for their handling of the child sex abuse crisis, saying their response had sometimes been very poor.
In ruling the Kentucky lawsuit could go ahead, the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an earlier decision by a district judge.
Although the Vatican is largely protected from lawsuits, the court ruled that clergymen could be taken to court as part of their role as Roman Catholic Church employees.
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| 'The Pope has criticised US bishops for their handling of sex abuse scandals' |
| Such a deceptive caption under the hand's-reaching-out photo — though the licks of red at the back of the image could be construed to be approaching flames.
Very good BBC — not a mention of Ratzinger's May 18, 2001 letter to 'Bishops of the entire Catholic Church and to other interested Ordinaries and
Hierarchs.'
Let's look at that delightful letter! What does the sentence snuck in at the end of the 'more grave delicts' mean — such a sentence might remind Bishops and interested Ordinaries and Hierarchs should they be feeling a little dull over the subject of child sex abuse:
A delict against morals, namely the delict committed by a cleric against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue with a minor below the age of eighteen
years... must be noted that the criminal action on delicts is reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith...
...the prescription runs according to the universal and common law; however, in the delict perpetrated with a minor by a cleric, the prescription begins to run... for 10 years... from the day when the minor has completed the eighteenth year of age.
10 years from age eighteen to be kept 'reserved' within the church!
That would give the statue of limitations for sexual abuse in most areas of the planet — at least in 2001 — time to run out, now wouldn't it!
Stop these pesky purse-runs.
And this of course right at the end of Ratzinger's letter:
Cases of this kind are subject to the pontifical secret.
Oh! You mean the law issued by Pope John XXIII 40 years past regarding secrecy — a Vatican law that when applied to sexual abuse victims is a mandatory condition of secrecy for both the perpetrators and victims.
This 69-page Latin document bearing the seal of Pope John XXIII was sent to every bishop in the world with instructions that outlined a policy of 'strictest' secrecy in dealing with allegations of sexual abuse, threatening those who speak out with excommunication.
Strictest secrecy where the victim is to take an oath of secrecy at the time of making a complaint to Church officials — such complaint to be stored in the secret archives of the Vatican Curia as strictly confidential, never to be published.
Bishops are instructed to pursue such cases in the most secretive way... all are to be restrained by a perpetual silence... and everyone... is to observe the strictest secret which is commonly regarded as a secret of the Holy Office... under the penalty of excommunication...
Hey, why do you think all those crafty Cardinals voted for Ratzinger to be Pope?
Crafty Cardinals they are — so many appointed by Ratzinger's predecessor, himself now on a fast track to becoming a 'saint.'
These abominations in their robed-splendor — how Jesus in his incarnation would have commented on such passing ridiculousness escapes me — these abominations wanted of course to preserve the evil that the inner hierarchy is.
Forget about abusing priests 'low-order evil' — these abusers only mess with lives of far-off parishioner's children!
'and don't forget to remind the blessed-simple-faithful to send their weekly purse so we can buy our splendid robes!'
The real evil folks, is in the inner hierarchies!Kewe |
Translation of Ratzinger's letter — Right click here, save as, for pdf
Click here for link on update to priestly shenanigans — SNAPnetwork.org |
God's Army — Christian Fascism Pastor Strangelove: Texan John Hagee, AIPAC, Trinity's 'Praise the Lord' |
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Placard reads: Soy farming model kills our peopleBrazilian-owned ranches have taken over land, growing soy for extremely cruel intensive animal farming, soy sent to Europe, the UK and North America Asuncion, Paraguay
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Amazon destruction speeds up Deforestation underestimated by at least 60% Drought in the Amazon basin |
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Thursday, Nov 20, 2008
URL: http://www.hindu.com/2008/
11/20/stories/2008112055251000.htm
Opinion
The Jurassic Auto and Idea Park
P. Sainath
The U.S. auto giants are an example of how things work in the age of unbridled corporate power.
Of how the collapse of restraint on that power fractures economy and society.
It is unfair to call the United States auto industry dinosaurs, as some now do.
It is certainly unfair to the dinosaurs.
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The ‘Terrible Lizards’ did not lay the basis for their own extinction or that of myriad other species.
The U.S. automobile companies did — and will take large numbers of jobs, workers and businesses with them.
It is more like the asteroid hit on the earth which is presumed to have fried the dinosaurs.
But that’s unfair to the asteroid.
The U.S. auto giants General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are more a fine example of how things work in the age of unbridled corporate power.
Of how the collapse of restraint on that power must fracture economy and society.
They also set the very standards that the Indian elite lusts to emulate.
Opposed fuel efficiency standards
The original dinosaurs (which scientists now tell us were neither all that terrible nor lizards) were great examples of success and adaptation.
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Good enough to rule the planet for 150 million years.
The U.S. auto industry is the opposite.
It’s not just that the Terrible Metal Lizards opposed fuel efficiency standards.
Of course, they did.
They also promoted gas-guzzling SUVs as a lifestyle must.
They cranked out cars many did not want to buy.
They wielded heavy clout in Congress.
And were able to sponge off public funds in the name of saving jobs as they have yet again.
Having received $25 billion earlier, their hats are in their outstretched hands again.
But that’s the easy part.
Destroyed both existing and potential public transport
There’s a lot more they did, as a major sector of industry — and as part of the larger corporate world of the U.S.
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Over decades, they destroyed both existing and potential public transport.
The ‘American Dream’ so far as the automobile went was an imposed nightmare.
In Detroit itself, you can see the skeletons of a once alive transport system.
All across the country, for decades from the 1920s, they bought up public transport systems and shut them down.
Trains were shifted from electric to diesel engines.
Sometimes, they were simply done away with and replaced by buses and then cars.
Together with Big Oil, Big Auto converted electric transit systems to fuel-based bus systems.
In one estimate: In 1935, electric train engines outnumbered diesel train engines 7 to 1.
"By 1970, diesel train engines outnumbered electric ones 100 to 1.
And GM made 60 per cent of the diesel locomotives."
The electric rail system in and around Los Angeles was almost erased.
By 2001 90 percent of Americans drove to work
Fostering the cult of the individual-owned automobile was a major goal.
By 2001, that goal was achieved beyond belief. Some 90 per cent of Americans drove to work by that year.
The findings of the 2001 National Household Travel Survey are striking.
Only 8 per cent households reported not having a vehicle available for regular use.
The survey showed that “daily travel in the United States totalled about 4 trillion miles, an average of 14,500 miles per person.”
Trips by transit and by school bus each made up just 2 per cent of daily trips taken in 2001.
War to deal with perceived threats to oil
Not just a cult but a culture grew around the Metal Lizards and fossil fuels.
Even an economy that goes to war to deal with perceived threats to oil.
(As Robert Fisk often asks: would there have been a war in Iraq if Iraq’s national product had been asparagus?)
Again together with Big Oil, Big Auto for decades crushed all serious moves towards cleaner energy sources.
Everything grew dependent — average American family fifth of income on transportation
Almost everything grew dependent on it.
From agriculture to aviation, individual to national needs.
When oil prices rose (before their present crash) thanks to heavy speculation, countless households in the U.S. were paralysed.
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Hundreds of little family trucking businesses went kaput.
People in outlying places who drive many miles to fetch things like bottled water and provisions found their budgets burning.
An average American family in 2004 spent up to a fifth of its income on transportation.
That’s against 13 per cent on food.
In “automobile dependent neighbourhoods,” according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics, that could go up to 25 per cent.
In bigger cities, the traffic only gets worse, never better.
There were over 135 million passenger cars in 2006.
Overall, registered vehicles clocked in at more than 250 million.
Centrality of oil, autos and private vehicles to everything
Imagine the centrality of oil, autos and private vehicles to just about everything.
This is the very model our own Indian elite seeks to transplant.
Private automobiles at the cost of public transport.
Never mind the latter is a lot cleaner and creates large numbers of jobs.
And so we add thousands of such vehicles to the roads each week.
Health costs single cause of bankruptcies
But back to the Metal Dinosaurs of Detroit.
Their asteroid hit will impact on far more than the nearly quarter of a million workers directly stranded on their turf.
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There are also more than a million retirees and dependents in trouble.
The retirees now watch their health benefits vanish.
That’s not nice in a country where health costs are the largest single cause of bankruptcies.
At age 75 or 80, it is misery.
Then there are millions of other workers in associated sectors.
In part-makers, supplier companies, in dealerships.
Corporate world would never allow to emerge
The health issue is also vital.
With all its wealth, the U.S. has no decent public health system.
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The corporate world as a whole has never allowed that to emerge.
The health insurance mob, Big Pharma, huge corporations in the medical field, and so on.
Take the loss of jobs in the automobile sector to Canada.
One reason is simply because Canada has a much better public health system.
Even GM (which also exists there) has lobbied in the past in that country to see that Canada’s universal health plan was not scuttled!
It has saved GM countless dollars.
Toyota healthcare cost under $300 per car
Each car that GM puts out carries a healthcare cost of around $1600.
For Chrysler, that’s $1500.
But for Toyota, that cost is under $300 per car.
Japan has a far superior public health system.
In the corporate-media of the U.S., this does not lead to calls for a good health system.
Or for making health access cheaper.
Doing away with union contracts granting auto workers health benefits for life
It leads to calls for doing away with the union contracts that guaranteed auto workers health benefits for life.
For retirees, the pullback has already begun.
India exults in emulating the worst of the U.S. model
India even now has one of the most highly privatised health sectors in the world.
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Yet exults in emulating the worst of the U.S. model.
The Indian elite boasts of India as one of the hottest destinations in ‘medical tourism.’
Sure, Americans might fly to India to get their surgeries done (which would cost them an arm and a leg in their own country).
But close to 200 million Indians have given up seeking any kind of medical attention at all — simply because they cannot afford it.
Never debate on whether companies should be allowed to get as big as they do
Meanwhile, the logic of “too big to fail” keeps Big Auto and others of its ilk going.
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There is never any debate in the U.S. on whether they should have been allowed to get as big as they did.
President-elect Barack Obama says he will aid the auto oligarchs who he calls “the backbone of American manufacturing.”
Sure, with that many jobs at stake, any government must worry about the consequences of letting them sink.
No question about it.
It’s on the basis of that very fear that the Terrible Metal Lizards are able to bargain for handouts from public money.
This economy has lost close to a quarter of a million jobs in the month of October alone.
So the thought of many more simply vanishing is scary.
U.S. has already lost over 1.2 million jobs this year
The U.S. has already lost over 1.2 million jobs this year.
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Close to half of those in the past three months alone.
So there is a good chance that more public money will be thrown at the auto giants.
And that, without larger strategic shifts being imposed on them.
Yet, everyone knows this does not mean an industry saved.
They could be back soon with demands for still more.
At which time, with things being even worse (quite likely) the pressure to save jobs by pouring in public money will be still greater.
Media shouted down protest over inflated Corporate executive ripoffs
This is the United States.
The money given out in the bailout so far has delighted the Tuxedo dinosaurs — CEOs and senior executives.
As The New York Times notes ruefully in a lead editorial:
“Just weeks after the Treasury Department gave nine of the nation’s top banks $125 billion in taxpayer dollars to save them from unprecedented calamity, bank executives are salting money away in billionaire bonus pools to reward themselves for their performance.”
Other bailout bandits have held meetings at resorts costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Remember the ‘debate’ over CEO compensation in India?
The media shouted down their favourite Prime Minister when he made a few meek sounds of protest over inflated CEO pay.
Well, there too, we were and are on the very track that has helped the U.S. land itself in the mess it now is in.
Welcome to the Jurassic Auto & Idea Park.
[Subtitles and images added by TheWE.biz]
© Copyright 2008 The Hindu
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Vandana Shiva — India resistance and corporations Coca-Cola and Plachimada — India photos |
TheInternationalForecaster.com
Bob Chapman:
Manipulations, Corruption And Looting Takes Economy To The Brink
In a stunning new development, the Dubai Multi-Commodities Center is now putting the finishing touches on the formation of an exchange traded fund for silver with a launch likely next month as demand for silver has surged in the past six months.
What may be happening here is that the OPEC nations, and possibly also Russia, are setting up a counterbalance against the collapse of oil prices.
You may recall from past issues that we discussed at length how we thought that sovereign wealth funds in oil-rich nations were tweaking gold and silver upward every time oil was smashed by the Illuminist manipulators.
The message was, you leave oil alone, or we will send gold and silver to the moon and expose your destruction of the US economy by killing the canaries in the coal mines, thus ringing the gold and silver alarm bells loud and clear.
This makes the Illuminists rabid, and induces collective myocardial infarctions among them, because precious metal suppression, especially of gold, is JOB ONE at the Fed.
The failure to cap the price of gold was Paul Volcker's only regret as Fed Head during his handling of the inflationary crisis of the late 70's and early 80's, and the privately owned, Illuminist Fed does not intend to make the same mistake twice.
The Illuminati have made two major mistakes, and the Dubai exchange may be the OPEC solution to the oil takedown, which is the direct result of those mistakes.
The first mistake is that the Illuminati gave OPEC a taste of 147 oil, and then pounded it down to 55.
This will not be tolerated, especially after these nations got a chance to experience the huge profits generated by such lofty oil prices.
The second mistake is the trashing of silver prices in the face of growing shortages at a time when the above-ground silver stocks are at an all-time low and headed even lower.
...Since there are only about a billion ounces of above-ground silver stocks left, and because silver is trading at a ridiculous sub-10, ten billion could clean out the entire above-ground silver stock.
This is chump change for these wealthy oil sheiks and their sovereign wealth funds.
So get ready to rumble as the evil Illuminist scum and the price-gouging sheiks of OPEC prepare to 'get it on' in an oil-silver showdown, complete with some very spectacular fireworks to come.
Both oil and silver are headed much higher, and gold will tag along for the ride as silver vaults to new heights.
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| WSJ and Barron’s have always been mouthpieces for the Illuminists |
The Wall Street Journal again avoids reality in an op-ed piece by Judy Shelton, called “Stable Money is Key and How the G-20 Can Rebuild the Capitalism of the Future.”
She points out, and rightly so, “that foreign attendees will take the view that Wall Street greed and inadequate regulatory oversight by US authorities caused the global financial crisis — never mind that their own regulatory agencies missed the boat and that their own governments eagerly bought up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities for the higher yield over Treasuries.”
Ms. Shelton forgets that US interests asked, cajoled and strong-armed many nations into those purchases, as they did CDOs, SIVs and ABSs.
Don’t you think they read the fine print and knew what they were buying — they are professionals?
Behind the scenes there was a plan to spread the risk.
Why would any sane government buy such toxic waste?
Incidentally, where are the lawsuits and criminal actions?
Because if the US goes under they all go under
There are none because they were all in on the plan to distribute America’s problems, because if the US goes under they all go under.
Regulatory agencies deliberately missed the boat because they were told to do so.
Then she has the temerity to tell us that “at the bottom of the world financial crisis” is international monetary disorder.
Stating, “ever since the past WWII Bretton Woods system — anchored by a gold-convertible dollar — ended in August of 1971, the cause of free trade has been compromised by sovereign monetary — policy indulgence.”
Spoken like a true internationalist Illuminist.
This is what the WSJ and Barron’s have always been mouthpieces for — the Illuminists.
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From UrbanSurvival.com
Spin City — Rewriting history
Time for one of our periodic checks to see how the use of the happy-talk word 'rescue' is doing compared to the world 'bailout.'
You'll recall when we took our first 'snapshot' of how history was being redrafted right in front of your eyes, a couple of months back, the word 'rescue' was being used only 18% of the time compared to 'bailout'.
Today at www.news.google.com, the search for 'bailout' brings 119,308 returns while 'rescue' returns 149,787.
That's a total of 269,095 references.
The math:
'Bailout' is down to 44.24% of the time, while 55% of the time the word 'rescue' appears.
You getting this?
The soft-headed mainstream media, consciously or otherwise:
(and these are the kinds of verbal directives that aren't put in writing, but come down to editors from 'upstairs')
in an effort to sound 'fresh" and not 'overwork' the word 'bailout' are rewriting history and most folks are completely blind to it.
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Miscarriage of Justice: Who was behind the October 2002 Bali bombings? Three Islamic people were executed on November 9th for their alleged role in the 2002 Bali bombings that resulted in the death of 202 people. |
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by Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, November 13, 2008
The official version of events was that the bombings were sponsored by Al Qaeda and carried out by members of an affiliate Islamic organization Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).
Most of those killed in the bomb attacks were Western, mainly Australian tourists.
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Evidence Withheld
There are indications that the trial procedures were manipulated and that evidence was withheld. Both the Western and the Indonesian media have been involved in a coverup.
Known and documented, Al Qaeda has been supported by both Pakistani and US intelligence. JI has received covert support and training from Pakistan's ISI. Jemaah Islamiah also has links to Indonesia’s military intelligence, which in turn has links to the CIA and Australian intelligence.
"Media accounts describing Jemaah Islamiyah as the outcome of some inexplicable Machiavellian plot are simply absurd. Without the CIA’s dirty operations in Afghanistan, neither Jemaah Islamiyah nor Al Qaeda would have come into existence.
The anti-Soviet war provided the money and the training, as well as forging the loose international network of contacts that was to characterise the future modus operandi of these organisations.
It also provided participants with powerful new credentials.
Upon their return to South East Asia, Washington’s “freedom fighters” were treated as heroes within Islamic circles.
In Indonesia, they even formed their own veteran organisation—Group 272—the figure being the number of former fighters."
(Peter Symonds, The Political Origins of Jemaah Islamiyah Behind the Bali Bombings, Global Research, November 2003)
Involvement of Indonesian intelligence and the CIA?
A contradictory November 2002 report emanating from Indonesia’s top brass, pointed to the involvement of both the head of Indonesian intelligence General A. M. Hendropriyono as well as the CIA:
"The agency and its director, Gen. A. M. Hendropriyono, are well regarded by the United States and other governments.
But there are still senior intelligence officers here who believe that the C.I.A. was behind the bombing."
(Raymond Bonner and Jane Perlez, More Attacks on Westerners Are Expected in Indonesia, New York Times, 25 November 2002)
The links between JI and Indonesia’s Intelligence Agency (BIN) are tacitly acknowledged by US based think tank, the International Crisis Group (ICG):
"This link [of JI to the BIN] needs to be explored more fully: it does not necessarily mean that military intelligence was working with JI, but it does raise a question about the extent to which it knew or could have found out more about JI than it has acknowledged."
(International Crisis Group, http://www.crisisweb.org/, 2003)
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Former President Megawati Sukarnoputr accused the US
In response to these allegations, the Bush Administration demanded that President Megawati Sukarnoputri, publicly refute the involvement of the U.S in the attacks.
No official retraction was issued.
Not only did President Megawati remain silent on the matter, she also accused the US of being:
"...a superpower that forced the rest of the world to go along with it...
We see how ambition to conquer other nations has led to a situation where there is no more peace unless the whole world is complying with the will of the one with the power and strength."
(International Crisis Group, http://www.crisisweb.org/)
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Cover-up
The links of JI to the Indonesian intelligence agency were never raised in the official Indonesian government investigation - which was guided behind the scenes by Australian intelligence and the CIA.
Moreover, shortly after the bombing, Australian Prime Minister John Howard "admitted that Australian authorities were warned about possible attacks in Bali but chose not to issue a warning."
(Christchurch Press, 22 November 2002. Similar warnings were made by the CIA).
Also, in the wake of the bombings, the Australian government chose to work with Indonesia’s Special Forces the Kopassus, in the so-called "war on terrorism".
Former President Abdurrahman Wahid: Involvement of the Police and the Armed Forces
The statements of two former presidents were casually dismissed in the trial procedures, both of which pointed to complicity of the Indoensian military and police.
In 2002, president Megawati Sukarnoputri, accused the US of involvement in the attacks.
In 2005, in an October 2005 interview with Australia's SBS TV, former president Wahid Abdurrahman stated that the Indonesian military and police played a complicit role in the 2002 Bali bombing.
(The transcript of the SBS TV Program containing the interview with President Wahid was posted on the Global Research website shortly before SBS TV withdrew the transcript from its own archives).
ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: The orders to do this or that came from within our armed forces, not from the fundamentalist people,"
REPORTER: But that bomb [second bomb attack] has been blamed also on Jemaah Islamiah.
ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Yeah, I know but you don't have any kind of proof.
The proof is that the bomb is similar to that belong to the police.
It's a problem for us then.
Every bomb there until now it belongs to the government.
ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Amrozi was involved in the lighter bomb.
That's a problem always.
Even though I agree that he should be given a stiff punishment, but it doesn't mean that he is involved.
No, no, no.
REPORTER: So you believe that the Bali bombers had no idea that there was a second bomb?
ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Yeah, precisely.
REPORTER: And who would you suggest planted the second bomb?
ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Well, it looks like the police.
REPORTER: The police?
ABDURRAHMAN WAHID: Or the armed forces, I don't know.
Australia: "Useful Wave of Indignation"
The 2002 Bali bomb attacks contributed to swaying Australian public opinion in favor of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, while also weakening the anti-war protest movement.
In the wake of the 2002 Bali attack, the Australian government "officially" joined the US-led "war on terrorism."
It not only used the Bali bombings as a pretext to fully integrate the US-UK military axis, it also used the attacks as a pretext to implement drastic police measures including "ethnic profiling" directed against its own citizens:
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Prime Minister John Howard made the extraordinary declaration recently that he is prepared to make pre-emptive military strikes against terrorists in neighbouring Asian countries planning to attack Australia.
Australian intelligence agencies also are very worried about the likelihood of an al-Qaeda attack using nuclear weapons.
(Insight on the News, 3 February 2003).
According to Peter Symonds in his 2003 review article on JI, the role of the Indonesian military remains unanswered.
"It is simply not plausible that Indonesia’s vast security and intelligence apparatus knew nothing about the large logistical operation involved in the Bali bombings.
Yet no investigation has been carried out into precisely what information military officials had prior to the attack.
Any leads casting suspicion on the TNI [Indonesian Military]—including the detention of a military officer—have been quickly dropped."
(Symonds, op cit)
Michel Chossudovsky is Professor of Economics and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
He is the author of a America's "War on Terrorism", Global Research, Montreal 2005.
© Copyright 2005-2008 GlobalResearch.ca
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You're a beautiful girl and you met my beautiful son Involvement of Indonesian intelligence and the CIA in Bali Bombing? |
| al-Maliki quietly firing fraud monitors |
| Sadly, since the Iraq attack by UK and US forces, the Shia allying themselves with the American occupiers have seen bloodshed after bloodshed
How different it could have been
The Shia could have told the Americans to leave from the moment they were given a voice
The Americans would have left — they would have had no choice
The Shia and Sunni would now be free of the infestation
But in the corruption and outright stealing, the country has degenerated into what it is today
Sadly for all Iraq people
When you do a deal with the devil you become the devil Kewe |
Resistance to US, UK, Bombing Resistance is response to foreign occupation Will stop once troops withdraw |
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...JP Morgan approached AIG London trading unit with a creative idea that AIG should write insurance on packages of debt known worldwide as 'collateralized debt obligations' or CDO for short.
The London operation created uncollateralized insurance for institutions holding the CDO's.
Their revenue jumped from $737 million in 1999 to $3.26 billion in 2005 according to Morgenson [New York Times].
These insurance products became known as 'credit default swaps' or CDS in the marketplace.
Since it was the London unit of AIG rather than the insurance company, that was not subject to the same regulations that require collateral to write insurance.
This allowed the CDS to be naked, indistinguishable from the Tulip Bubble.
The CDS market expanded sharply and even European banks began to get involved as insurance for portfolios.
This entire mess created a false sense of confidence and allowed risk concerns to take a back-seat.
The mortgage market was further expanded because it became presumed that one could insure against default and of course there was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with implied AAA ratings.
Bankers became careless, assuming the debt could be insured so why really bother about the quality?
The AIG London Unit may be the source of the contagion, but it was the absence of any regulation of interbank derivatives that is the problem.
Martin Armstrong |
| Don't forget the source behind the source — JP Morgan
Kewe |
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From Stoneth's Photostream — Click here
From a link given on ThePeoplesVoice.org — Click here |
| Much more frightening than the collapsing value of bits of paper traded electronically |
| Controlling access to trade finance determines who loses their jobs, whose children go hungry, who riots, which governments fall. Without dedicated focus on the issue of trade finance and liquidity from those in the emerging world most interested in sustaining the growth of recent years, little progress can be expected. Trade finance is rapidly communicating the stress on bank liquidity to the real economy. It presents a systemic risk much more frightening than the collapsing value of bits of paper traded electronically in London and New York. It could collapse the employment, the well being and the political stability of most of the world’s population. |
Letters of Credit and The Disruption of International Trade — Click here |
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Paper wealth accumulated through insider trading and stock market manipulation is used to acquire control over real economic assets, displacing the preexisting ownership structures.
What we are dealing with is an unsavory relationship between the real economy and the financial sector.
The financial conglomerates do not produce commodities.
They essentially make money through the conduct of financial transactions.
They use the proceeds of these transactions to take over bona fide real economy corporations which produce goods and services for household consumption.
The November 15 G-20 Financial Summit in Washington while formally presenting a project to restore financial stability, in practice, the hegemony of Wall Street remains unscathed.
The G20 Financial Summit doesn't question the legitimacy of the hedge funds and the various instruments of derivative trade.
Michel Chossudovsky |
Collapse of the Real Economy — Click here |
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Roots of evil in Jerusalem — Click here |
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The temple is overthrown
The gold has been pillaged
The wheel of fortune has accomplished her revolution
And the sacred ground is again disfigured with thorns and brambles...
This spectacle of the world how it is fallen!
How changed!
How defaced!
Edward Gibbon |
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His 'root' chakra is a chinese girl he knew in '95 named Ann.
He met her in Sacramento when he was living with his mother.
He thought she was a gift and he didn't know how he had gotten so lucky.
Ann was there visiting a friend or such.
She worked in a dotcom in sunnyvale.
Some time later, Brian went after her to Sunnyvale to try and find her.
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He found her, but she would only see him in secret once a week and would make him call her daily in case she wanted to see him the following day.
He was confused by her behavior and missed a day.
He never saw her again.
He felt her loss like a blow to the 'solar plexus' and thus associates her with his 'root' chakra, she is the love of his life.
Brian says people are bad to him and people use him.
He says about 2 years back his mother surgically removed his heart and sold it and had him committed to a mental institution.
He says his heart was his hero and he can no longer be a hero without that heart, but he says he had a spare 'less modern' heart as a backup.
He says things keep getting worse for him.
He says he sold his soul to the devil so as to stop his slide.
He says he's given himself to evil so that when others do evil to him, it can be no worse.
He doesn't believe in actually doing evil to others, however.
He says he visits hell frequently.
He says that Satan is his mistress but that he's trying to reform 'her' so that there will be no more evil in the world.
But he's not sure he can.
And he feels he's gone too far.
He says he needs help soon.
He hopes that someone will give him a way out.
But he doesn't believe there's much time.
He says soon he won't be able to turn back.
But for now, there's still time. |
From Stoneth's Photostream — Click here |
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In the midst of a debt crisis, the value of money rises on a purchasing power basis.
If the house that was purchased was once $500,000 but is now worth only half that amount, the same $500,000 now buys two homes.
Forcing the homeowner to now pay the $500,000 becomes a profit in purchasing power terms that is akin to a windfall.
Julius Caesar understood the Paradox of Value between the tangible assets and the value of currency caused by the swing in confidence between the Public and Private sectors.
Caesar established an evaluation board, which revalued each property to the equivalent value at the time the loan was made.
He realized that when assets decline, it is the purchasing power of the currency that rises, and in such circumstances, this becomes a windfall to the lender.
... Caesar's plan was to take all interest payments and principal payments and apply them to the loan to settle the debt crisis.
Martin Armstrong |
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From Stoneth's Photostream — Click here |
| In water sailors have told stories of giant or 'rogue' waves that appear out of nowhere What these are can be simply explained as cyclical convergences whereby numerous cyclical waves join together The giant wave is the amplitude of the individual waves blending to produce an abnormal 'rising' and, or, 'abyss' A huge abnormal event! |
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The US dollar, the present global financial system?
The interim wave time-duration 2008-2009?
Kewe |
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Sharp percentage swings in the currency can also cause delayed inflation.
For example, in 1985 when the British pound fell to US $1.03, Americans were buying just about everything in London.
Even the Concord tickets at 2,000 pounds that had been about US $5,000 in 1980, were suddenly cheaper than first class TWA tickets
Everyone started flying the Concord that they declared the flight a success, and raised the price to 4,000 pounds.
But then the pound rallied back to almost US $2.00 causing the price of the ticket to rise to US $8,000
The same happened to cars and housing; the inflationary boom was currency driven.
The same was true of the Japanese buying property in the US including Rockefeller Plaza.
But the decline in the dollar by 40% between 1985-1987, led to massive liquidation of property and the 1987 stock market crash.
Currency has become a major component in driving capital around the world.
All the old theories no longer work because the system was changed.
Martin Armstrong |
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From Stoneth's Photostream — Click here
From a link given on ThePeoplesVoice.org — Click here |
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The Keynesian model assumed the Government would stimulate when needed.
Yet what took place, the Government displaced the economy insofar as it became the single 800 pound gorilla to whom everyone looks.
However, if it lacks self-awareness and is too delighted in its own applause, it cannot and will not see that part of the problem is itself.
If the government borrows $1 trillion, where does it come from?
If it soaks up excess cash from the private sector, it is only redistributing the capital — not stimulating the economy as a whole.
Whatever the Government soaks up in capital, creates an equal and opposite effect of suppressing economic growth.
The First Law of thermodynamics applies.
There is a fixed amount of energy within the economy.
We can neither create it nor destroy it.
All we can do is redistribute the energy causing it to change form.
Martin Armstrong |
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UK War Crimes UK Terror State — Downing Street Memo — How Bush and Blair took us all for a ride War Criminals: Blair, Brown, Campbell, Goldsmith, Hoon, Straw |
Resistance to US, UK, Bombing Resistance is response to foreign occupation Will stop once troops withdraw |
Iraq casualty figures — Alive or Dead When you talk with God A U.S. armoured vehicle burns at Al Canal street |
| Canada, US, Western rogue governments — War crimes continue |
Afghanistan hit by record number of bombs
Bruce Rolfsen, Air Force Times
July 19, 2008
Air Force and allied warplanes are dropping a record number of bombs on Afghanistan targets.
For the first half of 2008, aircraft dropped 1,853 bombs — more than they released during all of 2006 and more than half of 2007’s total — 3,572 bombs. |
Western Terror States: Canada, US, UK, France, Germany, Italy Photos of Afghanistan people being killed and injured by NATO |
Cluster bombs Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon US new generation of landmines called Spider |
| IraqAlmost a million dead4 million displaced, scattered into other countriesUntold injuredHorror of US UK invasion continuing |
Basra, Fallujah, Baghdad, Mosul... US created Iraq — devastated cities They are such liars |
| The aim of TheWE.biz is to make us all aware that the most murderous violence and terror by far, committed by anyone, is done by The West
Violence and terror is the footprint and modus operandi of Western Government and the shadow power that operates from behind these 'elected officials'
This film helps us to focus on that reality
Indonesia's 9/11 — Exposing US government operations in the Bali Bombing
Kewe |
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Questioning War, Organizing Resistance — Carol Brouillet Glen Clancy, from Victoria, Australia, created "Fool Me Twice" described as 'A documentary about the Australian government's lies about the East Timor massacres, the cover-up of the Bali Bombings and subsequent anti-terror laws.' The 25 year old, Clancy is Australia's Dylan Avery (of Loose Change fame). The work was originally created to be viewed online, but Clancy is working on improving the resolution for larger screen and theatrical viewing. Glen wrote (at the Fool Me Twice Blog on December 4, 2008)
To all,
After discovering 911 was an inside job, through such movies as Loose Change, Terrorstorm and Zeitgeist, I decided to investigate the Bali bombings. The evidence was overwhelming. There had been a cover-up.
As shocking as the truth may be, please keep an open mind while viewing this documentary. FOOL ME TWICE is 100% sourced. Please see reference list below. I tried to produce a documentary as true to the genre as possible, limiting opinion and simply documenting the facts.
I believe that 911 Truth is one of the most important movements of our time and exposing the cover-up of the 2002 Bali bombings can help destroy the "911/War on terror/Al-CIAda" myth.
Please help spread this information.
Kind regards,
Glen
To listen to the March 10, 2008 interview of Glen Clancy by Carol Brouillet broadcast on:We The People Radio Network — Right Click Here (Save Target As, Link As, File) MP3 1 hour
Americans are politically paralyzed by both cognitive dissonance and by what psychologists call “learned helplessness,” the result of years of having one outrage after another foisted upon them, without there ever being any real accountability.
So, as many truthers have discovered, the most common reactions of average Americans, when presented with the facts of 9/11, are either, “My government would never do that,” or, “Okay . . . but what can anybody do about it?”
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Before that he was with the City of Sacramento as a Firefighter Paramedic.
He first began working in Emergency Services in 1988 in the Sacramento area with a 911 private paramedic ambulance company.
He has 20 years experience in Emergency Services.
He earned my pilot's license in 1987, and have been recreationally flying since.
He graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Mathematics from the University of California at Davis in 1993, with 2 years of elective Engineering courses, and a Minor in Psychology.
Erik wrote a moving account of his own shift in consciousness regarding 9/11 which prompted him to start Fire Fighters For 9/11 Truth entitled: MAYDAY...MAYDAY...MAYDAY.
Here's an excerpt:
I, like most Americans, remember exactly where I was when I saw the attacks and had the overwhelming urge to take action.
I was shocked, outraged, scared and confused.
I called my Battalion Chief and asked if Seattle would be sending any teams to help.
I was a member of the MMST, and figured we would be needed and I wanted to know where to report.
Due to the nature of the incident we were not called up, and instead USAR teams, including Seattle's, were sent.
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I first visited Ground Zero in October of 2001 with several firefighters from Seattle.
We went to pay our respect and show support.
We raised money for our brother firehouses and attended the funerals of our fallen Brothers.
I was deeply moved and humbled by the community support, the sheer enormity of the tragedy along with the courage and compassion of the FDNY "Brotherhood."
I vividly remember the anger, the intense desire for vengeance,the feelings of helplessness
Even though I listened to their stories for days, I cannot even begin to imagine the pain and tragedy they suffered on that day and the years to come.
I vividly remember the anger I felt, the intense desire for vengeance, and the feelings of helplessness.
I was relieved when the government identified the terrorists and satisfied that we were going to have a swift deliverance of "justice."
I've been a conservative my entire life; a registered Republican since I could vote.
I am a self proclaimed Patriot with George Washington as one of my all time heroes.
So when conspiracy theories quickly surfaced, and "Liberals" cried foul on the erosion of civil liberties, I chalked it up to their political beliefs and bitterness towards the Republican President.
I read many debunking articles — including Popular Mechanics — and watched many debunking videos including, Farenhype 9/11.
I was convinced that these "Liberals" were misinformed and were grasping at straws to discredit the "official" story.
Don't confuse me with the facts, I have my mind made up!
Like most people with strong opinions, instead of looking at all the facts, I was specifically looking for anything that supported my own beliefs.
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As soon as I discovered any inaccuracy in a conspiracy claim, I wrote it off.
My father, a big city cop and Korean War veteran, loved to say, "don't confuse me with the facts, I have my mind made up!"
Well, I had my mind made up.
I told conspiracy theorists like my own Truck Officer, Lt. Earl Emerson, that they were insane if they thought anyone other than the terrorists did this.
Bin Laden confession tapes — how much clearer did they need it
Heck, we have ID cards, security camera videos, Bin Laden confession tapes — how much clearer did they need it?
The years went on and I was satisfied in my beliefs.
I even believed these "Wackos" that doubted the "official" story were distracting our country from focusing on the real threat of terrorism...
Fast forward to March of 2008.
A great friend of mine with a Business degree from West Point, as conservative and non-conspiratorial as they get, came over one night to talk about what he saw happening in the economy.
Began researching such things as economies, who is in control of currencies
He provided some disconcerting evidence that we as a nation are at risk of entering into another depression; he pointed out historical parallels where other countries, such as Germany, suffered economic collapse.
THAT was my eye opener.
I became obsessed researching things such as economies, who is in control of currencies, what causes depressions, who profits during war, etc.
So many things kept pointing to 9/11.
Another one of my dad's favorite quotes was, "believe half of what you see and none of what you hear."
So, I looked at both sides and quickly noticed a pattern.
On one side, the general media ignores some of the most compelling evidence that contradicts the "official" story...
When I voiced my new opinion and concerns most of my friends listened.
Shocked that a staunch Conservative could have such a major shift
I think because they were shocked that a staunch Conservative could have such a major shift, or because they thought I had lost my mind and wanted to diagnose the cause.
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Curiously, some became angry at my new questions and actually thought I was supporting Terrorists with my concerns.
Being a part of that same mindset myself only a few weeks ago, and then having a major shift in consciousness, really shook me to the core.
What has happened to our collective consciousness that we believe anyone who doubts the "official" story or what the government tells us is an enemy?
What has happened to us — are we not founded on Freedom of Speech and taught to check our Government?
Anyone who asks for the Truth is labeled a "Wacko" or "Terrorist Sympathizer?"
What has happened to us?
Are we not founded on Freedom of Speech and taught to check our Government?...
To be honest, I was asleep at the wheel, and relied on what I was being told by mainstream media.
The same media whose parent corporations, are some of the largest suppliers of weapons in this war.
Before this "awakening" I had no idea the extent of our civil liberties that had been eroded in the name of Terrorism.
I had never really wrapped my brain around what legalized torture means.
I had always claimed America was noble.
Just look at how we treated POW's during WWII and Vietnam compared to our enemies.
[Ever check out the real story of John McCain as a POW, keep investigating! — TheWE.biz]
That separated us.
We were setting the example of Human Rights to the rest of the world.
[Check out the real facts of US instigations in Central and South America! — TheWE.biz]
Sure, you'll always have individuals that will take things too far, but Government sponsored torture?
[Let's mention CIA activity across the planet since its inception, including inside the US, and other black budget US government special operations agencies! — TheWE.biz]
What has happened to our country?
What kind of example are we setting for our children, and the world?
You would be interested to learn how many of our own rights have been stripped away recently.
Look up the Military Commissions Act of 2006, John Warner Defense Authorization Act, Homegrown Terrorism Act, Presidential Directive 51.
Amazing the rights we have all lost
It is amazing the rights we have all lost in the past couple of years and very little is covered by the U.S. media.
After discovering this, I applied the "common sense" test that my Grandfather always said wasn't so common.
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Why would a government so aggressively suppress truth and blatantly destroy evidence if there was nothing to hide?
Why has every testimony from sworn government and military officials that points to "prior knowledge" been stricken from the 9/11 Commission Report?
How did paper business cards, cloth bandanas, and plastic ID's that implicate the terrorists survive so neatly through jet fueled fireballs hot enough to destroy titanium and steel?
I've seen bodies burned beyond recognition, yet I have never found one that was wearing unburned clothing.
These questions alone are enough to make me risk everything for a real investigation and accounting...
When I truly realized the enormity of the effect 9/11 has had on our Rights, our Economy, our Beliefs, our Fears, our Intolerances and our Government — I felt fear, then anger, then the need to take action.
Bill Chickering said it best:
“Anger is a very appropriate and necessary response to an injustice.
“But stand back now; the truth, clearly spoken, is always your best weapon.
“Calmly spoken, it can burn a hole through the hardest heart.”
When I realized the extent of the force and attitudes working to silence those who peacefully ask questions, demand answers, and seek truth, it became clear to me that our Country is in serious trouble and I must now stand alongside those Patriots who seek Truth and Constitutional Restoration.
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Richard Gage, AIA is the founding member of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth ae911Truth.org.
He has been a practicing Architect for 20 years and has worked on most types of building construction including numerous fire-proofed steel-framed buildings.
He is employed with a San Francisco Bay Area architecture firm and has most recently performed Construction Administration services for a new $120M High School campus including a $10M steel-framed Gymnasium.
Currently he is working on the Design Development for a very large mixed use urban project with 1.2M sq.ft. of retail and 320K sq.ft. of mid-rise office space — altogether about 1,200 tons of steel framing.
He has been one of the most tireless speakers on the issue of 9/11 truth, and more specifically on challenging the official narrative of the disintegration of the 3 major skyscrapers in the World Trade Center complex that took place on September 11th.
He has been lecturing widely across the US and in Canada.
Those who see his presentation rarely walk away still thinking that fires alone could have brought down the buildings.
When NIST came out with a report recently that fires were responsible for the destruction of WTC7, Richard and Architects and Engineers were quick to challenge that report.
See NY Times quotes Richard Gage on WTC7 "collapse"
Aside from the NYT's reporter and a media request from Bulgaria, the press has tried to ignore the serious criticisms that Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth has raised about their reports.
Richard Gage gives an insightful interview on major points that scientifically do not agree with the official story of 9/11.
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 | Click logo for Firefighters for 9-11 truth |
| Click logo for architects & engineers for 9/11 truth |  |
For Film: Elephant in the Room
— Click Here
Elephant in the Room is a documentary following British filmmaker Dean Puckett through his journey into the 9/11 Truth Movement: a global movement of 'conspiracy theorists' who believe that the official explanation about what happened on 9/11 is totally or partially inaccurate.
The filmmakers travel from middle England, across Europe and to New York for the six year anniversary of the attacks, where the film takes one final twist as we are introduced to the 9/11 first responders who are suffering from various grave health difficulties due to the toxic dust that they breathed in trying to help their country during the weeks after this tragic event.
Told with a personal hands on approach that avoids advancing any one position, the film asks the question: are these crazy conspiracy theorists?
Or is 9/11 Truth a credible political movement?
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For Film: Loose Change Final Cut
— Click Here
Loose Change Final Cut is the third installment of the documentary that asks the tough questions about the 9/11 attacks and related events.
This movie hopes to be the catalyst for a new independent investigation, in which the family members receive answers to their questions, and the TRUE PERPETRATORS of this horrendous crime are PROSECUTED and PUNISHED. |
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9/11
By all accounts, the unprecedented events of September 11th, 2001 changed the way our country functions, and in turn, the world.
It is therefore critical that conscientious Americans, as well as people around the globe, understand these events in detail.
Unfortunately the official reports, including The 9/11 Commission Report and the NIST WTC Report, written by those working under the direction of the Bush Administration, have been proven to be elaborate cover-ups.
Film: 9/11 Revisited
September 11th Revisited is perhaps the most riveting film ever made about the destruction of the World Trade Center.
This is a powerful documentary which features eyewitness accounts and archived news footage that was shot on September 11, 2001 but never replayed on television.
Featuring interviews with eyewitnesses & firefighters, along with expert analysis by Professor Steven E. Jones, Professor David Ray Griffin, MIT Engineer Jeffrey King, and Professor James H. Fetzer.
This film provides stunning evidence that explosives were used in the complete demolition of the WTC Twin Towers and WTC Building 7.
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For Film: 9/11 Revisited
— Click Here
Film: 9/11 Press for Truth
An excellent documentary about the families of the victims of 9/11 and their fight to uncover and expose the truth about what happened that day.
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For Film: 9/11 Press for Truth
— Click Here
Film: 9/11 Mysteries
90 minutes of pure demolition evidence and analysis, laced with staggering witness testimonials.
Moving from “the myth” through “the analysis” and into “the players,” careful deconstruction of the official story set right alongside clean, clear science.
The 9/11 picture is not one of politics or nationalism or loyalty, but one of strict and simple physics. How do you get a 10-second 110-story pancake collapse?
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'Oh! You don't believe the 9-11 official version,' they say.
'You mean where they want you to accept the buildings were not blown up from below.
'Plane fuel! Substance never burns higher then a gas stove! That it caused the inner core steel to melt!
'Steel melting!
'Concrete vaporizing!
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'No! I don't believe that conspiracy theory.
'Cheney! Bush! Rudy Giuliani! HA! HA!
'Tower 7 that never had a plane hit — just came tumbling down!
'You believe that, eh!
'Ever think it had to be blown up because the plane scheduled to fly into it was off getting shot down.
'Thermite in Tower 7's walls, you see — incriminating evidence — impossible to get out without people watching!
Had to be blown up!
'Next you'll be saying Obama is not a Wall Street Illuminati banker stooge?
'Take your pick: The partner in a comedy team who feeds lines to the other comedians.
'Him who allows himself to be used.
'Oh! I can't really blame you, Television it turns minds to pulp.
'Turn off the television. It's the only way.'
'Turn off the television?'
'Get rid of it really. I mean what else is there to do!'
'Get rid of the television?'
'Don't forget all radio garbage is propaganda, even the songs.
'Then those five minute propaganda hits they send you every hour!
'The ones they refer to as News
'Get rid of all the propaganda from your brain, the only way to do it.'
'Stop being hooked on those Hollywood movies — even those that make you think they are making you think'
'All paid performers to make your brain dead.
'You turn the brainwashing off, you'll begin to become yourself.
'It really is the only way!'
'Oh!'
Kewe — TheWE.biz
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| Click logo for Firefighters for 9-11 truth |
| Click logo for architects & engineers for 9/11 truth | |
The War On Democracy is a powerful new documentary from award winning journalist and film-maker John Pilger.
Pilger interviews several ex-CIA agents who purportedly took part in secret campaigns against democratic countries and who he claims are profiting from the war in Iraq.
The film uses archive footage to show how democracy has been wiped out in country after country in Latin America since the 1950s.
The Venezuelan segment of the film features the President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez being captured in the coup of 2002, a takeover backed by rich and powerful interests under U.S. support. |
Humankind as we know it at the 'End Point'
Don't forget:
Behind it all is the desire for depopulation — by those rich enough to have their islands for temporary residence while depopulation takes place.
Doesn't matter if it is killing in the fight for food when the trucks no longer arrive at your local supermarket.
Doesn't matter if it is tribe against tribe.
Or thermobaric bombs — environmentally friendly compared to nuclear. Bombs that send ultra-sonic shock waves and searing fireballs to destroy everything in their dropping wake.
Or those special bombs that do not destroy the infrastructure — kill only you and those you love.
You are in the way, folks!
There are too many of you!
This is the plan.
Kewe |
Twenty Questions Radio/TV interviewers avoid asking about Israel Which parts of the Declaration of Human Rights and Geneva Conventions don't Israelis understand? Why is Israel still stealing Palestinian land for more illegal construction? |
Israel, chemical weapons and phosphorous bombs New and unknown deadly weapons used by Israeli forces Undetectable poison-needle gun for 'clean' assassinations |
The Negative Return Economy — a discourse on America’s black budget Fascinating and lucrative Black Budget? What Black Budget? |
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Unspeakable grief and horror
...and the circus of deception killing continues... | |||
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