Politics International

Making Sense of International Politics



See the links below left for sources I can recommend.

"The news and truth are not the same thing." - Walter Lippmann

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No bandwidth

Since the change to the new format and servers at web-log.nl, my space and bandwidth have been severely limited. 

As of 31 July, without one post, I have used 155% of my alloted bandwidth.  In other words, I may not post for lack of room.  Thank you web-log.nl.

Thus, this web log will be discontinued.  It will remain because of the links on the left side.  But no more posting.  See below for my active blogs, especially the Stumble Upon blog, with a variety of topics and unlimitied bandwidth.

My other blogs are:

  Stumble Upon

Blogspot.com

Terrorism, Globalization and Conspiracy

 

A great presentation by Dr. Michael Parenti of how globalization really works. Take an hour to watch this spell-binding lecture, and see if it isn't one of the best time investments you've ever made. A must see video.

Take me to the video

Best Bush joke

Ach, why not post a political joke here, if it's a good one? 

The absolute BEST Bush joke I have ever seen. Recycling...

George W. Bush has a heart attack and dies. He goes to hell where the devil is waiting for him. "I don't know what to do here," says the devil. "You're on my list but I have no room for you, but you definitely have to stay here, so I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I've got 3 people here who weren't quite as bad as you. I'll let one of them go, but you have to take their place. I'll even let YOU decide who leaves."

George thought that sounded pretty good, so he agreed. The devil opened the door to the first room. In it was former President Richard Nixon and a large pool of water. Nixon kept diving in and surfacing gasping for air, then immediately diving back into the water again over and over and over. Such was his fate in hell.

"No!" George said. "I don't think so. I'm not a good swimmer and I don't think I could do that all day long." The devil led him to the next room. In it was British Prime Minister Tony Blair with a sledgehammer and a room full of rocks. All he did was swing that hammer, time after time after time. "No way! I've got this problem with my shoulder. It would be constant agony if all I could do was break rocks all day!" commented George.

The devil opened the third door. In it, George saw former President Bill Clinton lying naked on the floor with his arms staked over his head and his legs in a spread-eagle pose. Bent over him was Monica Lewinsky, doing what she does best. George Bush looked at this in disbelief for awhile and finally said, "Yeah I could handle this."

The devil smiled and said . . . "Monica you're free to go..."

Keeping Iraq's Oil In the Ground

 

We've known that controlling the oil and keeping oil sales exclusively in dollars are perhaps the biggest reasons (there are others) for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.  But besides the U.S. determining who would, and who would not, get access to this oil, there is another reason.  And that is given here:  Keeping the price artificially high and in dollars, filling the coffers of the corporations and their stockholders as well as subsidizing the U.S. economy. This is another classic example of government and big business holding hands tightly.  It is also known as fascism.  The Iraq scenario becomes a little clearer with this.  But then, there is another problem: Other countries who are oil producers and the biggest threat to this U.S. government/corporate cartel currently is Venezuela with it huge reserves.  But even though connected to this, that's another story...

The Iraq oil control story here....

Attacking your own soul

"When you take away the humanity of another, you kill your own humanity. You attack your own soul because it is standing in the way." 

With these words, this retired army veteran writes a letter to the troops in Iraq today.  Or, rather, almost 3 years ago already.  What he has to say should have been taken to heart, for we hear more and more of the atrocities committed by the military.

Well worth the read.

Trapping Iran with a Tripwire

There are two lines of thought regarding Iran today:  One line is that the elite who really control the world do not want Iran invaded; thus this also explains the backing away by the U.S.

The other line of thought is that the U.S. is setting Iran up, as it did with Iraq.  This article deals with this line of thought.

C all me paranoid, but I don't buy the changed   face of the Bush administration. Smiling Condoleezza Rice saying   "we understand that it may take a little time for Iran to assess the situation,"   Bush saying of Iran's reaction   "sounds like a positive response to me," unnamed American official   saying that eventually   "this Iranian regime can have enrichment at home." Is this Neverland?   Or is it a con job?

It is possible that it is all true and sincere. It is also possible that Santa   Claus exists.

But it is more likely that it is a trap. That the sole purpose of the   current US   "soft" diplomatic activity is to induce Iran to   "suspend their enrichment in a verifiable way." What for?

There is no security risk to the United States nor anybody else if Iran runs   164   P1 centrifuges. It   would take 28 years for that equipment to make sufficient enriched uranium   for a single bomb. Why then the precondition that Iran needs to stop this activity   for the US to even start talking? Why isn't this one of the many issues that   could be addressed during the actual talks?

  "The suspension of all enrichment-related activity is at the core of what the   international community is asking Iran to do." Why?

Read on. . . .

 

A few questions to a General

Now that he's retired, he can speak his mind.

Brigadier General Says Israel is the problem not Iraq by James J. David, Brigadier General, USA ret. - Jan 7, 2003

(James J. David is a retired Brigadier General and a graduate of the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College, and the National Security Course, National Defense University, Washington, DC. He served as a Company Commander with the 101st Airborne Division in the Republic of Vietnam in 1969 and 1970 and also served nearly 3 years of Army active duty in and around the Middle East from 1967-1969.)

Question: Which country alone in the Middle East has nuclear weapons? Answer: Israel.

Question: Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and bars international inspections? Answer: Israel.

Question: Which country in the Middle East seized the sovereign territory of other nations by military force and continues to occupy it in defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions? Answer: Israel.

Question: Which country in the Middle East routinely violates the international borders of another sovereign state with warplanes and artillery and naval gunfire? Answer: Israel.

Question: What American ally in the Middle East has for years sent assassins into other countries to kill its political enemies (a practice sometimes called exporting terrorism)? Answer: Israel.

For the rest of the interview:

http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a109.htm

Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress

From my SU Blog,  I'm going to post something here.  Rather than something about news and current events, or commentary/analysis, I want to take you back in time. For it is from the perspective of European and American history that we can see what is happening in the present far more clearly.  And that is my objective here.

Many of us read books, but the last years, I think many of us also tend to read shorter articles, perhaps for the wealth of reading material nowadays, but perhaps also for lack of time in our busy lives.  Even being newly retired, I find myself in this busy predicament (I have two kids at home and my wife works yet, too) It's just......well.........busy.

I have a proposal for you:  Instead of encouraging you to read A People's History of the United States , a whole book of 24 full chapters, why not read ONE chapter?

Here's the url.

If you like that, then go on to your heart's content here.

Written by Howard Zinn, this is history as I was NEVER taught it by any institution - school, church, state, community or family in my first 48 years in the U.S.  And Zinn talks about perspectives of recording history also in this first chapter; what was to be recorded and from which/whose perspective. 

But here I read, for the first time, of what really happened with Columbus and many other "discoverers", and about events from the perspective of the large, developed, indigenous population of North America as the Europeans came there.  And we can see, first hand, what European 'civilization' did to the 'uncivilized savages'.  And us, I might add.

Try this first chapter.  I'll bet you'll want to read further.  And if you're like me, your perspective about North American, and perhaps some European, history will change.

One hour of your time...

If I told you that within one hour you would have a good and documented outline of U.S./UK and European recent empire activities, the wars in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, 9/11, globalization, Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden and more, would you be williing to watch a documentary video by Professor Michel Chossudovsky? Chossudovsky's credentials are impeccable, his knowledge and evidence are remarkable. Take an hour and learn what most never learn in years of reading, and then the real and documented facts. I've been a political blogger for some time now, but have never come across such an outline that connected so many dots. A must watch video! Want to know even more, and have updated materiall? Then visit Chossudovsky's well known and highly regarded website: http://www.globalresearch.ca/

Take me to the video documentary

The "rules of engagement"

 

         

 

June 6, 2006

Confirming yet again my description of the U.S. "rules of engagement" in Iraq, which can be summed up as "civilians be damned," comes the latest incident:

On Monday, U.S.-led forces fired artillery at the train station in Anbar's provincial capital of Ramadi, "targeting four military-aged males unloading a weapons cache."

A hospital official, Dr. Omar al-Duleimi, said American forces killed five civilians and wounded 15. The U.S. military said the mission had "positive effects on the target," but it denied that civilians were killed or injured in the city west of the capital.

A hat tip goes to Holden at First Draft. I probably would have missed this story, which is buried 24 paragraphs (!) down the story about 50 people being kidnapped in Baghdad. And the issue of the 24th paragraph is no minor issue. The San Jose Mercury News, which I read in print, cut the story off well before that paragraph, and searching on Google and Yahoo news indicates minimal coverage of this story.

And let me say that the despicable, cynical nature of that phrase "positive effects on the target" merits only contempt.

Source

USA out-flanked in Eurasia energy politics?

The past couple of months have been difficult to analyze; the momentum of the U.S. thrust into the Middle East, highlighted by its invasion and devastation of Iraq pointed strongly in one direction.  But suddenly in the last couple of months, there seemed to be a vacuum, an unexplained stillness, in its policies. 

It is now becoming increasingly clear that the U.S. is running into world-wide oppostion, especially from Russia and China, but also South America.  And many other nations are waiting in the wings, more silently. 

This has to give not only the U.S. cause to think, but also Europe, who has been following after the U.S. in the hopes of sharing the spoils.  This strange vacuum or silence is now becoming more obvious. </i>

The US's global energy control strategy, it's now clear to most, was the actual reason for the highly costly regime change in Iraq, euphemistically dubbed 'democracy' by Washington. George W. Bush restated his democracy mantra as recently as May 28 at the West Point military graduating ceremony where he declared that America's safety depends on an aggressive push for democracy, especially in the Middle East. 'This is only the beginning,' Bush said. 'The message has spread from Damascus to Tehran that the future belongs to freedom, and we will not rest until the promise of liberty reaches every people in every nation.' If the trend of recent events continues, it won't be Bush-style democracy that is spreading, but rather, Russian and Chinese influence over major oil and gas energy supplies.

Curiously and quietly the United States is being out-flanked in its now-obvious strategy of controlling major oil and energy sources of the Persian Gulf, Central Asia Caspian Basin, Africa and beyond.

The quest for energy control has informed Washington's support for high-risk 'color revolutions' in Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Kyrgystan in recent months. It lies behind US activity in the Western Africa Gulf of Guinea states, as well as in Sudan, source of 7% of China oil import. It lies behind US policy vis-à-vis Hugo Chavez' Venezuela and Evo Morales' Bolivia. In recent months, however, this strategy of global energy dominance, a strategic US priority, has shown signs of producing just the opposite: a kind of 'coalition of the unwilling,' states who increasingly see no other prospect, despite traditional animosities, but to cooperate to oppose what they see as a US push to control it all, their energy future security. Some in Washington are beginning to realize they might have been too clever by about half, as is evident in recent public statements to both China and Russia, two nations whose cooperation in some form is essential to the success of the global US energy project.

Here, then, an explanation by F. William Engdahl, a foremost analist.

Expansion of spying on Americans

New CIA director Hayden plans massive expansion of spying on Americans

Now that he is officially sworn in as the new head of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael Hayden plans to build a vast domestic spying network that will pry into the lives of most Americans around the clock.

President George W. Bush told Hayden to "take whatever steps necessary" to monitor Americans 24/7 by listening in on their phone calls, bugging their homes and offices, probing their private lives, snooping into their financial records and watching their travel habits.

Can I prove this in a court of law? No. Do I know it is happening? Yes, without a doubt. Enough sources within the CIA, FBI, NSA and Pentagon have come forward in recent days to warn about Hayden's plans for an expanded, consolidated spy network aimed at Americans, not terrorists, and violating numerous laws that prohibit such activities against citizens of this country.

"What Hayden plans to do is not only illegal, it is immoral," says a longtime CIA operative who may retire early rather than participate in what he sees as an illegal extension of the spy agency's activities.Read further....

"Memorial Day"

Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. Nowhere else. But it is a "holy day" in America. Why? I sympathize with the families of those who died in America's wars. They have real losses. But there is nothing glorious, or righteous, about those wars, ever since the Civil War. They were wars of elitists protecting and enhancing THEIR economic interests. And those who died, died believing in a cause that was a lie. It was not about freedom, or defense or any other nice sounding words or ideals. It's about control of the People and exceedingly high profits for the elite. It's been that way for many centuries. Nothing more. Instead of calling for a day of Memory for the "glorious" fallen, I would suggest a Day of Mourning for them and their families. And us. For we all have been victims of the wars caused by, and for, the wealthy elite. Pawns in their service. Isn't it FINALLY time that the People determine what happens in their own country? That's what's known as democracy, after all.

New threat to Petrodollar

It looks like this is Russia's answer to the U.S. Middle East policies, and specifically Iran. Watch the dollar drop even further.

It seems that the U.S. dollar is not only threatened by the Iranian oil bourse but also by Russian plans expected to deal a similar blow to the American currency.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced recently that a Russian bourse would be trading oil and gas in Roubles which will threaten the stability of the U.S. Dollar and deal a worse blow than what the Iranian Oil bourse would do, according to Global Research.

Read on here...

and here....

Iraq War Veteren Tells All - UPDATED

Click on photo to enlarge

This is a running update of the post below.

Pepperspray Productions Pulls Video About The Killing Of Innocents Recounted By Iraqi Veteran, Jessie Macbeth
Further, an IVAW spokesman Tuesday said Pepperspray Productions pulled the video until further questions could be answered. But the anti-war spokesman would not provide details whether Macbeth's veracity was at issue, whether the producers bowed to military pressure or whether it was black ops campaign to spread disinformation, a dirty campaign catching journalists and readers in a web of deceit knowing no bounds or decency in modern day fascist America.

The story of this video continues, and is being updated regularly.

24 May update

25 May update

The Chief Lesson in Governing the People?

Mike Rivero has been blogging independent news for over 12 years. His website is perhaps my favorite, and I visit it several times a day (often, many times) along with a number of others. Mike is extremely astute, and even though we are not the same politically, we see the same things. I rate him right up there with recognized independent authors and historians. Here, then a comment from him worth remembering:

"If there is one lesson I have learned in researching this website through the years it is that those in power lie to their people not on occasion, but continuously, as the least expensive means to rule a population. Rule by deception is the norm. Rule by deception is how it is done. Rule by deception is a source of tremendous power over a population trained to tell and believe they are told the truth."

In a sense, we all know this. But from his very experienced vantage point, Mike not only confirms this, but offers more than ample evidence.

Here is where you'll find him.

The Da Vinci Effect

Here's where art and form blend into politics, and the political outfall of the film "The Da Vinci Code" seems to be quite high. Pay attention to what Rivero writes about deception, for this is how we've been ruled since the beginning; and that's what the Da Vinci Code is also about. The political lessons are great, which is why I'm posting it here at my politics blog as well as my SU blog.

Authored by Michael Rivero, this essay talks about why the Church is afraid of the film "The DaVinci Code".

From the page: But it occurred to me that the story of Jesus' marriage and children stand to gore far more oxen than just those at the Vatican. If there is one lesson I have learned in researching this website through the years it is that those in power lie to their people not on occasion, but continuously, as the least expensive means to rule a population. Rule by deception is the norm. Rule by deception is how it is done. Rule by deception is a source of tremendous power over a population trained to tell and believe they are told the truth.

The enemy of rule by deception is doubt. And that is where the Da Vinci Code is a danger to the orthodoxy. It does not need to prove anything. All it needs to do is create a doubt in the mind of the public that what they have been taught to believe is the truth. Doubt leads to curiosity, and curiosity leads to abandoning the passive acceptance of what one is told in favor of searching out all the available facts. Clearly, this is already happening, and regardless of whether one can ever prove the specifics of Jesus and Mary, the facts are already quite uncomfortable to the church.

And the same is true of government: Deception is the method of rule.

Rivero's essay here.

Iraq War Veteren Tells All

Click on photo to enlarge

Jessie Macbeth, a Former Army Ranger and Iraq War Veteran Tells All

This 20 minute interview will change how you view the U.S. occupation
of Iraq forever. I cannot possibly recommend this more highly. An Iraq war
veteran tells of atrocities he and other fellow-soldiers committed
reguarly while in Iraq. I have never seen this level of honesty from a
U.S. soldier who directly participated in the slaughtering of Iraqis.

Excerpts:

"When we were doing the night raids in the houses, we would pull people
out and have them all on their knees and zip-tied. We would ask the man
of the house questions. If he didn't answer the way we liked, we would
shoot his youngest kid in the head. We would keep going, this was our
interrogation. He could be innocent. He could be just an average Joe
trying to support his family. If he didn't give us a satisfactory
answer, we'd start killing off his family until he told us something.
If he didn't know anything, I guess he was SOL."

and

"For not speaking out, I feel like I'm betraying my battle-buddies that
died."

Take me to the video

Venezuela considers petro sales in Euros

This has been near the surface for some time already, and as the U.S. gets more and more belligerent, the likelihood of other countries changing over to the Euro in Petro sales and purchases increases.

Venezuela 'may swap oil currency'

Venezuela has hinted it could price its oil exports in euros rather than US dollars, further weakening its links to the US.

President Hugo Chavez said he was considering taking the step following a similar declaration by Iran.

Earlier this month, Iranian authorities gave backing for the launch of an oil exchange that traded solely in euros.

Some reports have suggested Iran's move may be part of a bid to undermine the importance of the dollar.

But in an interview with Channel 4 News in London, Mr Chavez said the move was merely a matter of choice.

"I think the European Union has made a large contribution with the euro," he said.

"So what the president of Iran says ... is recognising the power of Europe - they have succeeded in integrating and have a single currency competing with the dollar, and Venezuela might also consider that - we are free to do that," he added.

Dollar concerns

Experts have suggested that, should Iran demand payment for its exports in euros, central banks could opt to convert some of their dollar reserves to euros and therefore possibly trigger a further decline in the US currency.

The dollar has already come under pressure in foreign exchange markets in recent weeks, triggering nervousness in world stock markets.

Central banks, especially in Asia, who hold large amounts of the US dollar, could find the value of their foreign currency reserves substantially reduced.

Tensions rising Iran is currently embroiled in a stand-off with the US in a row over its nuclear ambitions.

Iran, the second-largest exporter in oil producing nations group Opec, insists merely wants to build power stations, but the US claims it is building nuclear arms.

Meanwhile, Venezuela - the world's fifth largest oil producer - has been trying to reduce its dependence on the US, as relations have been strained under President Hugo Chavez.

In April it signed a joint venture with Cuba - a long time opponent of the US - to revamp an oil refinery and supply unrefined oil to the country.

Source

Control the people: Create your own enemies

It's the oldest trick in the book, dating back to Roman times; creating the enemies you need.
In 70 BC, an ambitious minor politician and extremely wealthy man, Marcus Licinius Crassus, wanted to rule Rome. Just to give you an idea of what sort of man Crassus really was, he is credited with invention of the fire brigade. But in Crassus' version, his fire-fighting slaves would race to the scene of a burning building whereupon Crassus would offer to buy it on the spot for a tiny fraction of it's worth. If the owner sold, Crassus' slaves would put out the fire. If the owner refused to sell, Crassus allowed the building to burn to the ground. By means of this device, Crassus eventually came to be the largest single private land holder in Rome, and used some of his wealth to help back Julius Caesar against Cicero.

In 70 BC Rome was still a Republic, which placed very strict limits on what Rulers could do, and more importantly NOT do. But Crassus had no intentions of enduring such limits to his personal power, and contrived a plan.

Read on...this is political reality

Big brother is watching....

This is an interesting article, written by a journalist about the issue of spying on Americans. Well worth the read.

May 13, 2:28am
Tags: peripheral-devices, civil-rights, us-foreign-policy, us-policy, god-help-us
washingtonpost.com [washingtonpost.com]
A friend wrote in on this article:

QUOTE You see, all this fuss about the NSA spying on Americans....it means nothing. Americans are convinced that there is an evil Arab Muslim waiting to attack them at every chance. Perhaps they're all hiding in the wardrobes at night, or under the beds of small children. Perhaps they're stalking all Americans, waiting for the chance to....what, drive a plane in to their subdivision?

Can you even imagine if Saudi Arabia, Canada or India spied on its citizens, and 66% of the country went right along with it, as that was fine with them? The US, UN, EU, Amnesty International et al would shred them to pieces.

I've never known a more overwhelmingly fearsome nation in my life. Take all freedom away - it helps keep those "Arab terrorists" out. END QUOTE

She's an American Christian living overseas in a Muslim nation and we often talk about how much more freedom she has there than we have here. She reminded me of the following quote:

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along... the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them that they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater threat." Hermann Goering, Nazi Reichmarshall, Nuremburg trials 1946.

To which I responded:

People don't see how this applies to them. They don't understand how it is used for social engineering. They figure, if I'm not doing anything illegal, who cares. They don't see how the government can use this information to know what companies a business may be calling and that information can be traded to a competitor if the wrong person has access. They don't see how logging phone calls shows whether you have family outside of the US which can flag you for further investigation. They don't see how it assumes guilt, rather than innocence, nor how unconstitutional that is. They don't realize that with this information centrally collected, fundraisers or political action committees can use it to target people who contact the opposition. Flag them for an IRS audit maybe. And what about the woman trying to escape an abusive husband? If the government has access, a small bribe means just about anyone can have access.

I'm probably going to have to do an article to show people how this affects them, whether or not they are currently doing something wrong. One thing this administration has been very good at is changing the laws to fit their needs. Sami Al-Aran is an excellent example. He's retroactively 'guilty' for actions done fifteen years before the law existed when it wasn't a crime. Like the new bankruptcy laws, Americans are considered guilty first and they have to prove they didn't do whatever it is they are charged with. The problem is, as any first year physicist will tell you, negatives cannot be proved. Just like a war against a tactic can never be won.

O'Reilly was his regular hardcore self yesterday as he put his stamp of approval on this further government intrusion. All I could think about before I switched channels was "he's telling people not to fear government. Even our founding fathers said fear government...because power perpetuates and it becomes about acquiring more power, more wealth, more control and that means everyone else must lose these things. O'Reilly really doesn't get it.

They're trying to pass state paid preschool in California. Our government controls us in three ways: by the military/law or threat of force, through the media...what we know and see, and through education. People don't see how serious this is because they don't know how to think critically and we've been so conditioned toward a self-centered, politically correct perspective through what we're taught in school that Americans, unless they've had the opportunity to interact with people outside of the US, cannot see beyond what they are told. They're too afraid to make waves, lest they lose the leveraged life they love.

They don't realize, if this keeps up...they'll lose it anyway.

And they're wrong about when this started. I've found several articles in the mid-90's dealing with illegal telephone surveilance by our government. It's been public knowledge for at least ten years.

N.B. The source below is best viewed with a Firefox browser. Internet Explorer will give unsatisfactory results at this web-site (StumbleUpon).
Source. . . .

What's up?? And yeah...Iran...

Lately, international macro political developments seem to me to be almost frozen. It's like waiting for something to happen, but no one knows quite what. And yet, we all know there is much happening vis-a-vis the U.S. and Iran. We just don't know whether the U.S. is persuing a logical policy or an illogical and idealistic neo-con policy which will lead to armageddon. And this is one reason for fewer posts here at my blog lately. I wish to post information that is meaningful, not just to repeat the same old, same old, or unconnected dots. Family events have also been very busy for us lately, also another reason for a bit less attention here at my blog.

The events of the past couple of months have led me to this point in my thinking, as I've mentioned already recently. Mainly, it is the attempt of the neocon controlled U.S. to try to justify their attacking Iran, or at the least, justifying barbaric economic sanctions against Iran. The same type of sanctions that under Bill Clinton are responsible for the deaths of 1.5 million Iraqis. The purpose is for the U.S. to gain control of the main sources of oil in the world and to keep the petro-bourse in dollars only (thus subsidizing the whole American economy) and to maintain a political/military dominance in the world.

No other nation in the world, far more, indeed, than all other nations put together, have so many military installations in other countries as the U.S. This alone speaks volumes. And this is also not meant for defense as is claimed, but for offense. And this has always been U.S. policy: Offense.

Now comes a take-off on Wikipedia through People for the American way. Take a look at this, for it is based on Wikipedia, with evidence and source supported input from concerned people. And the topic is the presidency of George W. Bush.
Go take a look here....

"Come Out of the White House with Your Hands Up!"

Enough people who have been following independent news after 9/11 have run into enough evidence to at least question the official story, if not severely question it. It seems, finally, that enough people know enough about this that there is a momentum growing.

Ex-Bush Official Busts 9/11 Perps at U.W. Historical Society Madison, WI Saturday, May 6, 2006 An enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd packed the Wisconsin Historical Society auditorium Saturday to hear ex-Bush Administration insider Morgan Reynolds prosecute top administration and military officials for the 9/11 inside job.

Reynolds indicted Richard Cheney, George W. Bush, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Richard Meyers, confessed WTC demolisher and insurance-fraudster Larry Silverstein, and others for mass murder, conspiracy, and other charges including high treason. The enthusiastic response from the overflow crowd was a de facto vote for conviction on all counts.

The former Director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis, showed that the defendants conspired to create a false cover story of suicide hijackings in order to "blow the World Trade Center to kingdom come" with explosives—a shock-and-awe psy-op designed to coerce the American people into supporting a pre-planned "long war" in the Middle East, massive increases in military spending, and the rollback of Constitutional civil liberties.

Reynolds stated that everyone in the worldwide intelligence community knew that 9/11 was an inside job as soon as it happened, with the obvious stand-down of US air defenses, controlled demolition of the World Trade Center, and non-protection of the President in Florida being the biggest tip-offs. The head of the Russian equivalent of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the former head of the German intelligence service Andreas Von Bulow, former National Security Agency official Wayne Madsen, and former MI-6 agent David Schayler have all openly called 9/11 an inside job, while former CIA official Ray McGovern has confirmed this directly in private, and indirectly in public by way of his ringing endorsement of David Ray Griffin's work on 9/11.

Read on. . . .

The Real Oil Story: The Oil in Iraq

I believe this is pretty much on target, except that it's larger and more complex than just Iraq; there's Iran, Venezuela, Nigeria, Russia and a number of other major oil producing countries. And then the gas, and the gas and oil pipelines, as in Afghanistan for instance. And then keeping the dollar as the world petro currency, which props up the whole U.S. military, government and economy. Without these huge subsidies, the dollar and the whole American economy would drop like a rock. Then too, the absurd "contracts" being given to select U.S. corporations and the subsidizing and protection of Israel keeps a few more select under the U.S. wing, furthering the grip on power.

So control of the major sources of oil, gas and pipelines, as well as keeping the dollar the only petro currency is the name of the game. And the Middle East has much of this oil, as well as being strategically located geographically. In this way, the U.S. can command the oil industry, and with that, the political power in the world.

Along with all this, a police state is rapidly being/has been developed to keep people, where ever they are, under control. For only the People, en masse, can tip the power balance.

Oil is pretty slippery stuff. The press is playing up $3 a gallon gasoline, record oil company profits, and the $400 million retirement package for Exxon's former CEO. But these stories are trivial compared to the oil story they have ignored all along. The war in Iraq. It's an oil war. And you don't have to take my word for it. Read former Republican strategist Kevin Phillips new book, "American Theocracy: the Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century." The corporate media may have failed us but authors like Phillips are providing the needed analysis.

Bush, Cheney, Rice and other key Bush players have impeccable oil industry credentials. When they came to the White House, so did the oil industry. Cheney, Rumsfeld and others also have strong ties to the Project for a New American Century, a neo-conservative organization which unabashedly advocates U.S. world supremacy through pre-emptive war, regime change for governments they don't like, and permanent military bases in the Persian Gulf to secure U.S. interests - foremost among them oil. U.S. world domination requires not only access to oil but control of it - a tall order since 65% of the world's oil reserves lie within the boundaries of a handful of Arab countries.

Phillips explains that coveting and safeguarding Persian Gulf oil has long been a cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy. We've struck deals, propped up royal families, supported coups, and armed dictators to keep the oil flowing in our direction and to give U.S. oil companies a piece of the action. We've also waged at least one prior war for oil, the first Gulf War in 1991. If Bush did not consider oil when deciding to invade Iraq, it would be the first time in fifty years that guaranteeing an uninterrupted flow of Persian Gulf oil was not a central element of U.S. foreign policy.

Read further....

The Inevitable Collapse of the Greenback

Major political events have had me stymied the last few weeks. Seeing that the Iranian Oil Bourse did NOT open on March 20 as widely reported, and seeing that the U.S. could or did not get much progress in the UN in "condemning" Iran during that time, that got me to wondering. Since the end of March, I've been waiting for something. And perhaps this is it; the Iranian Bourse IS going through after all.

The effect on the dollar is predicatable. The main question in my mind is whether other countries wish to apply pressure on the dollar, by exchanging them for euros, gradually or not. My guess would be gradually, so as to try to prevent a world wide depression. But out-guessing the financial elite in the world on specific actions is, at best, an educated guess.

Here, then, a report on this.

"The ultimate financial impact of trading oil in Euros rather than dollars is a complex one, but according to many experts, such a move could lead to a collapse in value for the American currency, potentially putting the U.S. economy in its greatest crisis since the depression era of the 1930s." "Petro-euro: a reality or distant nightmare for the US?" AlJazeera.com

Read the report here....

Another perspective here...